Drug Safety: How the FDA Approves Medicines, and Your Part

No drug can be sold in the United States until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves it. That applies to prescription and over-the-counter drugs alike.

What the FDA checks

The FDA judges both how well a drug works and how safe it is by looking at:

• what animal testing and human clinical trials show about its effect on the condition it treats;
• whether it causes side effects;
• how it is manufactured;
• what its label says.

The FDA also keeps watching a drug's safety after it is approved.

Reporting side effects

Health care providers and patients can report a drug's side effects through the FDA's MedWatch website.

Your part

For you, drug safety means:

• buying medicines online only from licensed pharmacies in the United States;
• knowing how to take your medicines correctly.

Sources

• MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, "Drug Safety." https://medlineplus.gov/drugsafety.html
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.