Free Republic

It is the job of our good friends at the US Food and Drug Administration to give the OK — or not — on what we put into our bodies. Unfortunately, their decision-making process has proven to be not as much of an exact science it should be. In fact, the FDA has made some pretty huge blunders that have ended in irreparable damage and even death. Here are just a few disastrous FDA mistakes that unleashed harmful drugs into the market. Quaaludes were a sedative and hypnotic used as a sleeping aid between 1962 and 1985. They were, in...

WASHINGTON -- The maker of the painkiller Darvon is pulling the drug off the market at the request of public health officials who say the more than 50-year-old pill causes potentially deadly heart rhythms. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals had agreed to halt all U.S. marketing of Darvon and the related brand Darvocet, which have been subject to safety concerns for decades. The Kentucky company confirmed the move in its own statement. The FDA also called on generic drugmakers to stop marketing low-cost drugs containing the active ingredient in Darvon, called propoxyphene. Britain and the...

WASHINGTON — Government medical advisers recommended a ban Friday on Darvon, a prescription medicine that’s been used to treat pain for more than 50 years but left a trail of problems such as addiction and suicide. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14-12 to recommend withdrawing Darvon after a daylong hearing examining its risks and benefits. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisers, but it often does so...