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This week in FDA history.This weekly feature from 2006, the FDA's centennial year, highlights history and progress in the agency's first 100 years.A sampling of significant events in the Food and Drug Administration's first 100 years.
Picture of the "Drug Facts" label.

March 11, 1999:
FDA publishes a regulation mandating that labels of all over-the-counter drugs contain information in a standardized, consumer-friendly format. These "Drug Facts" labels, similar in format to the Nutrition Facts label for foods, are designed to provide easy-to-find information to help patients use the product safely and effectively.

FDA in 2006
The need for information about OTC medicines is growing: more than 700 medicine products available over-the-counter today use ingredients and dosages that were available only by prescription less than 30 years ago. There are more than 100,000 OTC
products using about 1,000 active ingredients on the U.S market. The FDA offers a variety of resources to help consumers make good decisions about the OTC medicines they're using.
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