Act One

Reporter Sean Cole tells the history of getting warning labels onto acetaminophen bottles. In 1977 an FDA advisory panel recommended a warning about liver damage. It took 32 years before the FDA took their advice and mandated a label. As Cole notes: "The drug approval process is usually slow but not usually this slow. The FDA began with acetaminophen over 40 years ago in 1972. In that time, science has mapped the human genome, eradicated smallpox, we’ve cloned a sheep. And yet we still have not come up with final rules for safe usage and labeling of one of the most popular drugs in the country, of which more than 20 billion doses are sold each year." (24 minutes)