The FDA stands for The Food and Drug Administration. The FDA is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA regulates food, prescription and over the counter drugs, cosmetics, veterinary and tobacco products, vaccines, electronics such as those that give off radiation as well as x-ray machines, and medical devices. The FDA is the oldest government organization that was committed to buyer security. The FDA, while not originally called this, started in 1906 with the approval of the Pure Food and Drugs Act. This act was designed to avoid mislabeled food and drug products and was the start of making sure every ingredient was put on labels. In fact, this act was given to the Bureau of Chemistry section in the US Department of Agriculture which was renamed the FDA in 1930. The responsibilities of the FDA have been modified completely since 1906. The market itself, the science behind it, and the cultural, political, and economic changes have had sudden changes over the past 108 years. Therefore, a long standing argument has developed over whether or not the FDA is necessary. People that are indeed against the FDA complain that they take too long to approve drugs and spend too much government money. People for the FDA claim that the agency keeps us safe and without it, many Americans could suffer serious side effects or even die. Although I can see both sides over the need for the FDA, I concede that it is helping us more than it is hurting us. The FDA is a necessary agency because they regulate what is put into our cosmetics and skincare as well as the labeling on it so we can avoid false advertisement. Actually, two years ago, the FDA added new regulations for the ... ... middle of paper ... ...d potentially harm a lot of people. But Americans, foreigners, and Johnson & Johnson ignored the FDA because of the popular belief that the FDA is too regulatory and picky. However in the process of them not listening to the FDA, so many people were harmed. Even other countries versions of the FDA approved it which goes to show how careless other countries were/are. Even though Americans are constantly in doubt of the FDA, they still have our best interest in mind. The FDA is vital to our country, albeit makes mistakes. Sometimes the FDA can be too strict or they can take too long to approve a drug. But I think for the most part, the FDA is really looking out for our country and wants to be on the people's good side rather than the businesses good side. The FDA has a public mission to keep our country healthy and I feel quite safe in their hands.
“Pure Food and Drug Act 1906.” 34 U.S. Stats. 768, quoted in Medicine in the Americas, Bethesda, Maryland: National Library of Medicine, 2004. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22116/.
Pomeranz, Jennifer L. "A Comprehensive Strategy To Overhaul FDA Authority For Misleading Food Labels." American Journal Of Law & Medicine 39.4 (2013): 617-647. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
In Melody Peterson’s “Our Daily Meds” , the history of marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry is explored. The first chapter of the book, entitled “Creating disease”, focuses on how major pharmaceutical companies successfully create new ailments that members of the public believe exist. According to Peterson, the success that these drug manufacturers have experienced can be attributed to the malleability of disease, the use of influencial people to promote new drugs and the efficient usage of media outlets.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or USFDA) is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety, tobacco products, dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs (medications), vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices, electromagnetic radiation emitting devices (ERED), cosmetics, animal foods & feed and veterinary products.
"Regulatory Information." Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 20 May 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. .
To give background on the FDA and USDA for better understanding the USDA is responsible for meat and poultry, while the FDA is responsible for dairy, seafood, and vegetables. The USDA was founded in 1862 to encourage food creation in the United States (Sherrow 15). Dr. Peter Collier was the first person to suggest rules and laws for the safety of our food (Sherrow 15). Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act in 1890. The Act made the USDA inspectors inspect all pig products (Sherrow 15). In 1906 the Comprehensive Meat Inspection Act was passed. The act assigned inspectors from the UDSA to the United States’ 163 slaughter houses. In the slaughter houses the meat needed to be inspected before and after slaughter (Sherrow 15-16). The FDA is also responsible for protecting food from terrorists and anyone who wants to try to harm the public (Wilson). The FDA oversees 167,000 farms in the United States and 421,000 worldwide farms. The FDA only has 1,100 inspectors to inspect those farms (Wilson). The number of inspections done by the FDA went from 4,573 in 2005 to 3,400 in 2006 (Sherrow 34). According to the Center of Science in the Public Interest the FDA has no authority for prev...
Appropriately, this motion picture correctly illustrates the amount of work, time, and money that actually goes into developing a medical innovation. In addition, this movie acts as a solid example of the grueling path one must take for permission in releasing a medical innovation to the public. Writing for the journal The Scientist, Jef Akst stated that the film acted as a good depiction of the “hard to swallow fiscal issues of drug development” (thescientist). However, this painfully hard process exists for good reasons; they must weed out the ideas that can not be safely practiced in modern society. Also, the regulations ensure that each innovation, whether drug, therapy, or procedure, will benefit the consumer more than the side effects could harm them. Moreover, the benefits of the innovations, as previously mentioned, must outweigh the costs for the patient and practicer for maximum
and the FDA is approving them. You don't need to spend tons of money on
Wood, Susan F., and Kristen L. Perosino. "Increasing transparency at the FDA: the impact of the FDA Amendments Act of 2007." Public health reports123.4 (2008): 527.
trials of investigation medical products. The FDA also has to review and approve in a
Janssens, Cecile. "How FDA and 23andMe Dance Around Evidence That Is Not There." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.
A blockbuster drug, Rofecoxib, with sales of 2.5 billion dollars of annual sales was pulled off the market (Topol, 2004). The drug was pulled off after epidemiological studies had noted 1.4 million people have had a serious side effect (Medscape Medical News, 2004; Topol, 2004). Rofecoxib side effects were all associated with myocardial infarction, cardiovascular risks, and even death (Smith, 2007; Topol, 2004). Merck a drug manufacturing company and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioners apparently did not or concealed relevant data from the public that would otherwise be known to protect population health.
The long process is actually takes twelve years and 350 million dollars to get a new drug on the shelf. Three and a half years of the twelve is spent on laboratory testing, that’s before putting in the application for the FDA. If the FDA approves then it goes into three phases of clinic trials. Meanwhile, patients die in the process of a drug being approved. The President goal is to re-create the Food and Drug Administration by choosing a candidate that will crank out new cures quickly. He wants to give more power to the doctors and patients to sort out what’s worth trying. A doctor from the Mayo clinic, thoughts on that happening was, “It would be chaotic,” Speeding up the development of powerful new treatments is a laudable goal, he said, but exposing patients to costly, ineffective, and potentially dangerous drugs could be disastrous.”
...ly look at the false claims made by food industries expand on their already set regulations, making it harder for companies to get around them. However, if the FDA believes that their regulations are as specific as they can get, then there should be at least somebody to educate consumers about food labels and add more detail to nutritional value charts. Because without changing the way how information is provided and educating people, they will not be able to change their diets to improve nations overall health.
Government regulation on food, drinks and medicine has created safer products for public use. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is constantly working hard at making sure that the food and medicine produced and sold by corporations are safe for public health and are produced in an ethical manner. Food and pharmaceutical corporations are forced to follow strict guidelines so that their products are allowed to be sold in the United States. Much of the public doesn’t realize that the Food and Drug Administration is also in charge of regulating the cosmetics that are sold within the United States. However, unlike food and drugs, cosmetics companies are loosely regulated and given a greater freedom to produce items they choose. Various cosmetics have been found to contain ingredients that are harmful to the public health or the environment.