The FDA, Food and Drug Administration, as the name implies, is charged with overseeing food and medicines Americans eat, drink, apply, or otherwise use for health or medical purposes.
When any pharmaceutical or medical device company wants to sell its products in the United States, it seeks approval from the FDA to do so. Until the new product gets that approval, it may not sell those products.
When there is a disease outbreak due to a food substance in the United States, such as a salmonella or e. coli, the FDA works to warn the public. When there are problems with counterfeit drugs, the FDA steps in to analyze the problem and send out the proper warnings.
We patients can use the FDA website in a number of ways. In particular, we can:
- Review drug approvals
- Find safety alerts
- Research drugs we have been prescribed, or dietary supplements
- Use the FDA Orange Book to figure out if a brand name drug has a generic equivalent (and vice versa)
- Report problems we have with drugs. The FDA asks us to report any adverse events, meaning problems we have with any drugs we take, at its MedWatch website.
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Return to the master list of government health and medical websites.
