“The United States needs a better system to detect harmful effects of drugs already on the market, and it should be independent of the Food and Drug Administration and the drug industry, medical researchers and journal editors said yesterday.

Arguing that it was unreasonable to expect the same agency that approves drugs to ‘also be committed to actively seek evidence to prove itself wrong,’ the editors of The Journal of the American Medical Association recommended that the nation consider establishing an ‘independent drug safety board’ to track the safety of drugs and medical devices after they were approved and in widespread use.” (New York Times )