FDA forges ties with WebMD for drug safety

The US Food and Drug Administration has announced a first-of-its-kind accord with the leading on-line specialist health care web site, WebMD.com. The move is "only the first of what the FDA and WebMD expect to be an evolving partnership."

The federal agency's Commissioner, Andrew von Eschenbach, pointed to its new partner's 50 million unique visitors per month and WebMD the Magazine's nine million print readers to explain the decision. He said: "this is going to enable the FDA bringing to millions of people timely product-safety alerts and important health information."

Among the initial phase of collaborations between the FDA and WebMD are: a facility for members of the public to report problems with drugs and other agency-monitored products; health alerts from the government; links to relevant parts of the FDA's own web site; and the gathering of feedback from the public, including on-line opinion polls for the FDA's benefit.