The FDA has taken about a dozen drugs off the market in just the last 10 years. Medications that appear to be safe during the approval process can later turn out to have dangerous effects.
Example: The antibiotic gatifloxacin (Tequin), originally approved for respiratory infections, was later found to cause dangerous changes in blood sugar levels, resulting in the deaths of some patients. The deaths were especially tragic because most patients would have done just as well with older — and safer — drugs.
Most new drugs are tested on only a few thousand patients at most. If a drug causes a deadly reaction in, say, one in 20,000 patients, it might be years before the dangers become apparent.
Avoid any drug until it has been on the market for at least two years. That’s long enough for serious dangers to surface. (Of course, some patients benefit greatly from new, breakthrough drugs, but for most conditions, older drugs with proven safety profiles are equally effective.)
