Kayla Shelton
Professor Lodge
UNIV 200
14 April 2011
Ensuring Consumer Safety:
Toward Redefining the U.S. Food and Drug Administration The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of foods, medical devices, and prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs (medications). The FDA regulates and supervises medical devices and drugs throughout their development, manufacturing, process of approval, marketing, and post marketing stages. When a drug or medical device is granted approval by the FDA, it will shortly become marketed in the United States and available for public use. The FDA responsibility during this post marketing stage consists of ensuring product safety and efficacy through continued research and testing of the product. If the FDA discovers safety or efficacy problems with the medical device or drug, they are also responsible for removing the product off the market and informing the public of their findings. The FDA is a very powerful United States government agency, who plays a crucial role in American citizen’s health and well-being. Through their legal authority established by the United States government, the FDA is chiefly responsible for ensuring the American public’s health and safety in the foods we eat, to the medicines we take to cure a common cold, to the treatment choices we use to help manage a disorder, and even the treatments available to possibly cure a disease. All of the citizens in the United States depend on the FDA to do their job in keeping us safe and healthy, so understanding how the FDA meets their responsibility of protecting and promoting public health through regulation and supervision of drugs and medical devices can prove to be incredibly