The Partnership for Public Service recently penned a Washington Post article on an FDA official named Deborah Autor who has played an instrumental role in removing over 500 unapproved drugs from the market.

Autor, who is the director of the FDA’s Drug Compliance Office,  has worked to remove various types of unproven drugs from the market, including unapproved: cough medicines, antihistamines, certain single-ingredient narcotics, analgesics for pain, anti-inflammatory drugs, migraine medicines, gastrointestinal pharmaceuticals and many other products, including some prescribed to children and some reportedly linked to deaths.

Most recently the FDA has ordered a number of manufacturers to stop making unapproved drugs that contain the ingredient quinine. The FDA has received 665 reports of adverse effects experienced by patients as a result of quinine use, including 93 deaths.

Unapproved drugs have never been tested for proper dosage, regimen and possible drug-drug interaction with other medications. Their use has resulted in hundreds of deaths.

Continued injuries to patients due to unapproved drug use are unacceptable, and we at the 60 Plus Association are glad to have someone like Autor working to eliminate these products from the market whenever possible.