A Perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine calls for change in the way researchers and pharmaceutical companies collect and report adverse symptom information in clinical trials submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and how the FDA represents this information on drug labels.

Ethan Basch, MD, outcomes researcher and medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, recommends that fundamental change is necessary in order to improve the process of evaluating the true toxicity of drugs. Dr. Basch has found that clinicians -- the current responsible party for collecting and reporting symptoms in clinical trials -- systematically miss important symptoms and often underestimate the severity of the symptoms they do notice. According to Basch, this leads to under-reporting of adverse events and, consequently to clinical trial results, publications, and drug labels that don't adequately represent the true toxicity of drugs.More »

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Botox (onabotulinumtoxin A) to treat spasticity in the flexor muscles of the elbow, wrist, and fingers in adults. Spasticity is common after stroke, traumatic brain injury, or the progression of multiple sclerosis.More »