Drug labels should show comparisons

STANFORD, Calif., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers are calling for labels disclosing how a new medication compares with existing drugs.

In an essay published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Randall Stafford of Stanford University in California calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require more informative labeling of new drugs and medical devices.

Stafford and Philip Lavori of Stanford University and Todd Wagner of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System say patients should know if there is no evidence a new drug is more effective than older drugs already in use.

"Drug and device manufacturers benefit from an unacknowledged information gap that develops as more and more products are tested against placebo, but not each other," Stafford says in a statement. "There's an inherent tendency for physicians and patients to want the newest thing and to assume that newer and more expensive means better, although this is often not the case."