FDA Proposes New Prescription Drug Labels to Help Prevent Errors

Health officials Thursday moved to prevent dangerous medication prescribing errors by proposing a new, easier-to-read format for the prescription drug labels written for doctors.

The updated labels should guide busy physicians to important drug warnings quickly, making it more likely that patients will receive the safest and most effective treatment, the Food and Drug Administration said.

The action comes after a string of drugs were pulled from the market, in part because doctors apparently never saw, or perhaps forgot, safety warnings and dozens of people were harmed or killed.

Drug labels for physicians actually are folded leaflets, sometimes pages long, written in tiny print and placed inside product packages. Warnings about side effects and possibly dangerous interactions with other drugs are sandwiched among other details.

An FDA study found that physicians thought the labels were lengthy, complex and hard to use.