Date and Time
May 16, 2007
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Todd H. Wagner - Veterens Affairs; Stanford University

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that drug developers show that a new drug is safe and effective prior to the drugs approval for marketing. The least expensive way to assess efficacy involves placebo-controlled trials. However, placebo-controlled trials have been criticized for assigning patients to an unethical treatment, for promoting me-too drugs and for failing to provide information regarding the drugs value relative to existing treatments. In this talk, we discuss the incentives favoring placebo-controlled trials, the problems that placebo-controlled trials create, and potentials ways to reduce these problems.