Assessing REMS: Risk Management's Key Question -- Do The Programs Work?

The first stage of REMS implementation from March 2008 until December 2009 was relatively easy. FDA and drug sponsors leaqrned how to adapt existing communications programs and techniques to deliver new safety messages. Now both the agency and the sponsors are moving into new territory: evaluating REMS. Both are grappling with the challenge of how to show that programs are working.