Patch watch - The Boston Globe

"OFTEN, THE Food and Drug Administration approves drugs after trials with a few thousand users only to see problems emerge later when the drug reaches the general market. It happened with the pain medication Vioxx, and it might be happening now with the hormonal patch for birth control, Ortho Evra. The FDA should require a large, rigorous controlled study of the patch to make sure that it is, at a minimum, no more likely to cause life-threatening blood clots than the birth control pill." [Boston Globe]