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| Category: Health:Medicine |
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| About the Book | |
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“[The] FDA lacks clear and effective processes for making decisions about, and providing management oversight of, postmarket safety issues.” - Government Accountability Office, March 2006. The above statement was made by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) following a 16-month investigation of the FDA, requested by the Senate Finance Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The report adds, “GAO observed that there is a lack of criteria for determining what safety actions to take and when to take them.” American Guinea Pig probes deeply into the multiple problems inherent in the current system of testing and monitoring of drugs in this country and why 230,000 Americans die every year due to adverse reactions from prescription and nonprescription drugs. Add to that the 2.3 million hospital stays and $200 billion in annual health care costs, and one can see that we are faced with an American tragedy on a monumental scale. But this book does more than expose the problem – it also offers a solution. It explains in understandable language how basic, common sense changes in the law could easily cut these statistics in half. Imagine annually saving 100,000 lives and $100 billion in health care costs by increasing the efficiency of the FDA and the manner in which drugs are tested. The greatest value of this book, however, is how it equips every reader with the necessary knowledge and steps to take to substantially reduce the risk of becoming another casualty of the system – and why every user of prescription drug products will want a copy sitting in a convenient location for quick and easy access.
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| About the Author | |
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Terence Mix is an award-winning author (The Price of Ovulation) and trial attorney who has spent decades litigating against drug companies and dealing with the FDA. He is a former president of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association and Biographee in Who’s Who in American Law. |