Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Drug Safety
Before any drug can be sold in the United States, it must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is true whether it's a prescription or an over-the-counter drug. The FDA evaluates both the effectiveness and safety of a drug by looking at:
- How animal testing and human clinical trials affect the condition the drug is treating
- If any side effects occur
- How it's manufactured
- What the labeling says
The FDA also monitors a drug's safety after approval. Health care providers and patients can report drug side effects through the FDA's MedWatch website.
For you, drug safety means buying online only from licensed pharmacies located in the United States. It also means knowing how to take your medicines correctly.
It sits within Safety Issues and Drug Therapy.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Drug Safety
6,013 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Safety and Efficacy of OTL78 (Zopocianine)Clinton Bahler
- Chinese Medicine for Treating Chronic PharyngolaryngitisChinese University of Hong Kong
- A Study to Assess a New Medicine Called IPN01195 When Administered Alone in Adults With Advanced Solid TumoursIpsen
- A Study to Learn About the Study Medicine Ibuzatrelvir in Adults With COVID-19 Who Are Severely ImmunocompromisedPfizer
- Mechanism Study of Yangyin Roujin Formula in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia SyndromeJuan Jiao
- Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Long-acting Intramuscular Cabotegravir and Rilpivirine for Maintenance of Virologic Suppression Following Switch From an Integrase Inhibitor in HIV-1 Infected Therapy Naive ParticipantsViiV Healthcare
Research already completed
- A Study to Investigate the Efficacy and Safety of Baxdrostat in Participants With Uncontrolled Hypertension on Two or More Medications Including Participants With Resistant HypertensionAstraZeneca
- The Effect of Pecha-Kucha Method Training on the Knowledge and Skills of Nurses Regarding Anticoagulant Drug AdministrationIstanbul Saglik Bilimleri University
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Buying and Using Medicine SafelyFood and Drug Administration
- FDA Pharmacists Help You Use Medicines SafelyFood and Drug Administration
Related Issues
- Drug Development ProcessFood and Drug Administration
- Is It Really FDA Approved?Food and Drug Administration
- MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting ProgramFood and Drug Administration
- Postmarket Drug Safety Information for Patients and ProvidersFood and Drug Administration
- Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety AlertsFood and Drug Administration
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Drug and Narcotic Control, Counterfeit Drugs. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Drug Safety, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.