Free number to report on drugs urged

Consumers Union is pressing U.S. regulators to require that television commercials for medicines include a toll-free telephone number to report harmful side effects.

The group, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, said it has collected about 56,000 signatures on a petition calling for the Food and Drug Administration to require the inclusion of the agency’s phone number in TV ads.

Consumers Union also released results from a telephone poll it had conducted showing that only 35% of respondents knew they could report side effects to the FDA.

Legislation signed in September by President Bush requires the FDA’s phone number to be listed in print ads for drugs.