Drug safety

To the editor:

Both houses of Congress recently passed drug safety legislation but did not finish the job, as they went on vacation before sending the final bill to the president. How long will we need to wait to be protected from risky medications that we may be taking now? We need these safety reforms now, not when our lawmakers get around to it.

A drug safety bill would give the Food and Drug Administration new needed authority over drug companies. Drug companies must be required to report all results of their drug studies, both the good results and the bad results. If drug safety reforms are signed into law now, we will be able to prevent future Vioxx-type tragedies. It takes far too long to find out about safety problems with a drug under the current law.

Mary Coral,

Lawrence