1 Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) – sales, withdrawal ...

Abraham and Davis have explored drug regulation in several studies demonstrating regulatory
passive decision-making and accept of drug risks, which were largely unknown to the public
(63) McGoey has identified “a will to ignorance” within regulatory bureaucracies with SSRIs
risk and benefit balance as a case (64). Healy has also studied drug regulation in relation to the
SSRIs and concludes that in the case of the SSRIs the current regulatory practice overstates the
benefits and underestimates the risks of drugs (65). John Abraham (66) has suggested that drug
regulatory decision-making may be understood in the light of a permissive principle, i.e. a
tendency to permit a technology on the market, even if it does not meet established standards
of efficacy and safety and in contradiction to the precautionary principle. Abraham (67,68)
found that drug regulators tend to weigh the balance of scientific doubts about drug safety in
favour of the manufacturer, both pre- and post-marketing. Further the report from the UK
House of Commons describes several problems related to the close relation between the
pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory body (60).
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