Abstract
Dr. Alan K. Done, Director of Pediatric Pharmacology for the Food and Drug Administration, has recently secured a commitment from the pharmaceutical industry to complete preclinical studies of the many drugs which have not as yet been tested in young animals and are therefore not currently available for use in children. Once accomplished, this action and others already taken by the agency should help solve the problem of "therapeutic orphans."1 On the other hand, young children continue to be exposed to a large number of drugs which are already on the market and which are being given without adequate medical supervision or monitoring for adverse reactions.