Word: fda
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Already feeling the government's hands around their throat, tobacco-industry leaders took immediate steps to thwart Clinton's plan. The five largest cigarette manufacturers filed a lawsuit claiming that the FDA has no jurisdiction over cigarettes and that the advertising restrictions violate their First Amendment rights. But Clinton has tried to entice the tobacco companies into backing a law that would directly impose the restrictions he seeks. California Democrat Henry Waxman, the leading antismoking figure in the House, predicts that the new Republican majority might pass these reforms rather than let their nemesis, the FDA, regulate the industry...
President Clinton launched a dramatic new assault against the sale of tobacco to children. The President approved a groundbreaking decision by the Food and Drug Administration that classifies cigarettes as a type of "medical device" capable of delivering an addictive drug--nicotine. The decision triggers FDA regulation, and will be used to impose anti-tobacco rules to protect children. Among them: a strict prohibition of sales to minors, a ban on cigarette-vending machines and stringent curbs on ads aimed at youngsters. The tobacco industry immediately filed suit to stop the measures...
...latest major drug to be considered for the switch is Zantac, an anti-ulcer medication manufactured by Glaxo. Just two weeks ago, two advisory panels to the FDA gave preliminary approval for it to be sold over the counter as a heartburn remedy. Final approval from the fda, which normally concurs with its advisers' recommendations, could set the stage for a marketing war next year among three pharmaceutical giants for dominance of the $1 billion market for heartburn drugs...
...that the U.S. is heading toward anything-goes, free-market pharmacology. The FDA will not permit narcotics such as codeine to be sold over the counter. And each of the newly unrestricted drugs--from Aleve for arthritis to Monistat 7 for yeast infections--had to undergo many months and occasionally years of government evaluation before it could be let loose on consumers. Even so, of the 15 top-selling drugs in the $13 billion OTC market, 14 were once prescription only. Future candidates for deregulation include nicotine patches, which help people stop smoking, and cholesterol-lowering drugs...
Over the next few years, the FDA may consider deregulating more than a dozen drugs--nearly as many as have been approved for OTC sale in the past decade. Congressional proponents of deregulation are sure to argue that the FDA does not give consumers enough credit. "Some people say if the FDA had to review aspirin now, it would be prescription only," says Dr. Kenneth Kaitin, an expert in drug development at Tufts University. "You can kill yourself with aspirin. Yet we seem to be competent enough to know how to take it." Just remember to read the label carefully...