
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 10, 1994                   TAG: 9410200032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

DRUG LABELS TO BECOME MORE CONSUMER-FRIENDLY

The Food and Drug Administration has begun a process to overhaul the labels on over-the-counter drugs to make information more readable and understandable for consumers, agency officials said Friday.

The redesigned labels, which would appear on medicines purchased without a physician's prescription - such as aspirin and antacids - likely will be modeled after the new nutritional labels now on food packages across the nation. The food labels feature an easy-to-read format that is standardized and consistent among all products.

``Our goal is to have better-informed consumers,'' said Dr. Michael Weintraub, director of the FDA's office of OTC drug evaluation, who presented the plan to a meeting of a joint subcommittee of the agency's nonprescription drugs and arthritis advisory committees.

``We want people to be able to pick up a box of medication and know [from the label information] whether it's for them,'' he added.

Nevertheless, agency officials emphasized that the work toward revamping the labels had only just begun.

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB