Post-marketing studies are the new norm

Have a funny feeling that post-marketing safety studies are more and more prevalent these days? Well, it's not just a feeling. The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development found that drugmakers are increasingly bound to study their products after they hit the market--and not only in the U.S., but in Europe and Japan, too.

Over the last decade, in fact, 75 percent of newly approved drugs in Europe and the U.S. and 50 percent in Japan came onto the market trailing a requirement for post-approval studies. "What used to be the exception is increasingly becoming the rule," the study's author said in a statement, adding that post-marketing studies may help identify safety issues earlier and help drugmakers serve patients better.

- check out the release [1] from Tufts [2]
- read the Boston Globe story [3]

Related Articles:
Pharma drags feet on promised studies [4]
GAO to probe FDA's post-market follow-up [5]
Sponsors say post-marketing drug studies are a bust [6]
Analysis shows post-marketing studies ignored [7]