U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FDA Consumer magazine
March-April 2001
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This issue of FDA Consumer marks the completion of my first year as editor. It's also the last issue of FDA Consumer that I will edit. I will soon leave the Food and Drug Administration and join the National Human Genome Research Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health.
But before I go, I would like to say thank you to the magazine's readers. And I would like to thank the magazine's staff. Officially, the magazine speaks with the voice of the agency, but I want to tell you that the writers, editors and graphic artists have a fierce loyalty to the reader. They take deserved pride in doing everything they can to communicate the actions of the agency--and its reasons for those actions--clearly and effectively. With the help of FDA experts, the editorial and artistic staffs deliver authoritative, reliable, scientifically based information that readers can use to make informed choices about their own health.
Over the last year, there have been many changes in the magazine. We've added more color and informational graphics. We've added a letters to the editor department so you can react to the articles we print. We've added new voices to the magazine, such as those found in the "Last Word" column. We've tried to write the "Investigators' Reports" articles like the detective stories that they are. We've instituted shorter articles, a wider mix of story subjects, and an increased emphasis on providing the reader with current insights about the agency's mission to protect the public health.
Making the mission understandable is critical to FDA's partnership with the American public. Surveys during the past decade consistently show that public opinion is with FDA. Last September, a Harris poll found that 61 percent of respondents felt FDA did an excellent or pretty good job. Only 6 percent said it did a poor job. When asked what government agency the public most trusts to protect the safety of the nation's food supply, a May 2000 survey showed FDA had a 45 percent lead on the next closest government organization.
When the agency talks about powerful therapeutics, such as prescription medications, a September 2000 survey found that 80 percent of the public trusts FDA a lot or somewhat. And when the agency uses the bully pulpit to warn the public about a dangerous product, the public listens. Last November, FDA warned consumers to stop using over-the-counter cold and diet preparations containing phenylpropanolamine because it increases the risk of stroke; nearly half of those surveyed reported following the story very closely or fairly closely. Such credible communication saves lives.
FDA communicates much of its life-saving information in the pages of this magazine. Consider the story on acne and Accutane. A single treatment with this powerful drug can make intractable acne disappear, but its use during pregnancy can leave a baby deformed or stillborn. As FDA's scientists and policy makers struggle to find the right balance between safety and efficacy, their most effective tool is information that helps Accutane users make the right choices.
Drugs and unexpected adverse events, especially birth defects, have played a critical role in the history of this agency. The current cover story tells the tale of a long-time FDA scientist who almost single-handedly saved America from a prescription drug disaster that deformed thousands of newborns in European and other countries nearly four decades ago. Dr. Frances Kelsey has long been a legend both within FDA and among public health aficionados. And while most know that her work on thalidomide led to substantially strengthened legal authority for FDA in the early 1960s, few appreciate that Dr. Kelsey, as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, also participated in one of the other most important public health events of the last century: She helped solve the cause of deaths from Elixir Sulfanilamide, then a new form of antibiotic that went into use in the 1930s. The sweet-tasting solvent proved lethal. In response, Congress passed the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, the first modern consumer protection law in the nation's history.
As I leave FDA after a relatively brief tenure of five years, I do so with a sense of deep respect for this important public institution. It protects you in so many ways that we have yet to describe in the pages of this magazine. So as the years unfold, I hope you come to appreciate--as have I--the dedication of the agency professionals who defend the nation's public health. And I hope you keep reading FDA Consumer.
--Larry Thompson, Editor
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