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Federal probe: FDA drug directory rife with inaccuracies

Pharmacy Regulation Resource, August 17, 2006

The results of a government watchdog report released Monday found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prescription drug directory is missing more than 9,000 medications and lists more than 34,000 others that are no longer being sold, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The findings place serious doubt on the usefulness of the National Drug Code Directory, which is meant to help the FDA and other agencies deal with recalls, identify medication errors, and control imports, according to the report from the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The FDA said it generally agreed with the report and is working to repair the problems identified, the AP reported.

Federal law requires drug companies to list their prescription drugs with the FDA. The directory listed 123,856 prescription drug products as of February 2005, according to the AP article. However, the review found it missed about 9,200 drugs while continuing to list about 34,200 drugs either no longer sold or listed mistakenly.

The report found that most of the omissions or inaccuracies are caused by the failure of drug companies to comply with mandatory listing requirements.

Go here to read the report.

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