FDA orders digital drug labels
Wednesday, November 2, 2005

The FDA is creating a drug database. Drug makers will be required to submit electronic versions of their drug labels to the database and doctors and patients will be able search for information on the drugs such as recent warnings, dosages, side effects and contraindications.

Digital drug label updates my be provided to the FDA when there is a label change or yearly. It will take approximately a year to populate the database with the 9,000 U.S. approved prescription drugs. Eventually the FDA will require the same type of information for nonprescription drugs, medical devices, animal drugs, some food products, and biologic drugs such as vaccines.

The FDA says "With this information, physicians will be able to quickly search and access specific information they need before prescribing a treatment, allowing for fewer prescribing errors and better informed decision making." However, I think this will probably be primarily used by the public more than doctors. There are already many online drug databases out there (granted they are not free) which many doctors consult and are comfortable using.

What would make this an even stronger database is if the FDA included the price of each drug. There are already drug database products out there that include the typical cost of the specific drug. Having that information, patients and doctors can compare two similar drugs and perhaps ask for a prescription or prescribe the less expensive one.