Free number to report on drugs urged
Consumers Union is pressing U.S. regulators to require that television commercials for medicines include a toll-free telephone number to report harmful side effects.
The group, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, said it has collected about 56,000 signatures on a petition calling for the Food and Drug Administration to require the inclusion of the agency’s phone number in TV ads.
Consumers Union also released results from a telephone poll it had conducted showing that only 35% of respondents knew they could report side effects to the FDA.
Legislation signed in September by President Bush requires the FDA’s phone number to be listed in print ads for drugs.
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