"By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: August 6, 2005
Stung by a series of drug safety scandals, the Food and Drug Administration has in recent months issued a blizzard of drug-safety warnings and approval times for new drugs are slower.
Extra Caution
Forum: Health in the News
The agency is issuing twice the number of public advisories about drug risks as it did a year ago and adding five times as many black box warnings - its most serious alert - to drug labels. And drugs approved in the first half of this year took almost twice as long to get that approval as drugs approved in the same period last year.
This new conservatism, a response to fierce recent criticism from Congress that the F.D.A. has failed to protect the public against drug dangers, has upset some doctors and drug makers.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/06/politics/06fda.html?hp&ex=1123387200&en=faad45ae3cb9265b&ei=5094&partner=homepage