Insurers, FDA team up to find problem drugs

WellPoint Inc. is collaborating with the Food and Drug Administration to launch one of the first real-time drug-surveillance systems. Starting in 2009, Wellpoint will systematically scan the medical information of more than half of its 35 million members to look for hidden patterns or jumps in medical problems that might be linked to certain medication or combination of drugs. The drug-safety monitoring system currently used by the FDA has been criticized for spotty, slow and passive.