Mark Dolliver: Safety, Over the Counter

More evils of big pharma

As if consumers needed fresh impetus to think ill of drug companies, they’ve got one in the recent controversy over whether very young kids should take over-the-counter cold and cough medicines. Polling for NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health asked parents how they feel about these remedies and the industry that makes them. Among those with kids 6 or younger, 53 percent said they “did not think pharmaceutical companies did enough testing to ensure that these drugs were safe and effective.”