Health Highlights: July 10, 2008

The new response letter may not be as accessible to investors as the current FDA protocol dictates, prompting some critics to wonder whether shareholders will be in the dark about the status of drugs' "approvability," the news service said.

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Controlled Drugs Easily Obtained Online Without Prescription

Powerful addictive drugs -- known as controlled substances because of their potential for abuse -- are easily ordered online, and in most cases without a prescription, a new Columbia University study finds.

Of 365 Web sites that sold controlled substances regulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), 85 percent of the sites did not require a prescription, according to an Associated Press analysis of the study.

Examples of drugs that could be purchased this way included the potent painkillers morphine and oxycodone, and amphetamine stimulants.

The study found that the number of sites that sold controlled substances actually fell 37 percent from last year's analysis. The researchers cited efforts by law enforcement to crack down on illegal online drug sales.

About 80 percent of online prescriptions are for controlled substances, according to DEA statistics cited by the wire service. By contrast, these same drugs account for just 11 percent of sales at traditional pharmacies, the DEA said.

The House of Representatives is considering a bill to ban the sale of controlled substances online without a prescription. The Senate has already passed the measure.

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U.S. Wants to Snuff Out Federal Sanction for 'Light' Cigarettes

Tobacco makers would no longer be able to cite U.S. government approval for "light" or "low-tar" cigarettes under a rule change proposed by the Federal Trade Commission, USA Today reported.

The agency said it wants to end a 1966 policy that allows cigarette makers to mention tar and nicotine amounts "per FTC method," the newspaper reported Wednesday.

In seeking to "clarify the FTC's position," associate director Mary Engle said "this test method does not have our stamp of approval." The new proposal explains that in 1966, it was thought that the amount of tar in a cigarette could affect a smoker's risk of cancer," USA Today reported.

But the agency now says that people who smoke "light" cigarettes tend to take bigger puffs or inhale more frequently to gain the same effect as regular cigarettes. So the agency is prepared to recommend that consumers not use the amount of tar or nicotine in a cigarette as a measure of a safer smoke.

The public has until Aug. 12 to comment on the proposal.