Good news as reported in today’s WSJ article on the meeting of the FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee — The Food and Drug Administration convened the panel (to discuss an agency proposal that drug makers submit “longer-term efficacy data” on drugs that are used to treat depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and a range of other psychiatric illnesses before they are put on the market.) The panel voted 12-0 against a proposal to require premarket long-term efficacy data for drugs that would treat major depressive disorder. The panel didn’t vote on other psychiatric disorders, but said the FDA should consider each illness separately before implementing a “one-size-fits-all” policy for psychiatric drugs.
This deliberative dozen is helping to disprove the old maxim that “Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.” If only the same were true in Congress and the media.