A decade in the mak­ing: FDA pro­pos­es new, easy-to-read pa­tient med­ica­tion guide

The FDA on Tues­day of­fered a new pro­pos­al in the works since at least 2009 that aims to sim­pli­fy the way peo­ple re­ceive in­for­ma­tion about their pre­scrip­tions, as the agency says the cur­rent sys­tem “can be con­fus­ing, con­flict­ing, in­com­plete or repet­i­tive.”

The pro­pos­al is for any­one pick­ing up a pre­scrip­tion at the phar­ma­cy mov­ing for­ward to re­ceive a one-page ex­pla­na­tion of the es­sen­tials: the drug/bi­o­log­ic name, a con­cise sum­ma­ry of the in­di­ca­tions and us­es, im­por­tant safe­ty in­for­ma­tion, com­mon side ef­fects and di­rec­tions for use.

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