Monday, May 20, 2013

Why Has Texas Board of Pharmacy Not Been A Leader in Setting the Stage for the Rest of the States on How to Take Care of Business?

Almost of the states effected by the NECC outbreak have taken some form of action--new legislation, new regulations, new rules, enforcement action against bad compounders--yet Texas Board of Pharmacy has yet to be a  major player.  Yes.  They set up a Compounding Task Force.  Rumor has it the report will be released at a future board meeting.  Still you would have expected more from Texas Board of Pharmacy.  It is one thing not to  overreact.  It is another thing to take no concrete action at all.   We have seen no major state enforcement action out of Texas.  No transparency of records. In a fight between the FDA and the states as to who should have jurisdiction over compounding pharmacies, it all but appears Texas isn't fighting at all. The most promising news out of Texas is that the Board of Pharmacy is hiring additional inspectors.  Maybe we will hear from Texas soon. One just hopes it is before the new federal legislation is passed.

1 comment:

Kenneth Woliner, MD said...

Perhaps one of the reasons that Texas isn't looking at compounding pharmacies is that PCCA is based in Houston, TX. PCCA is a major supplier of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients to other compounding pharmacies. BTW, PCCA "does things right", has an independent testing lab (called Eagle Analytical Services) to test for potency and sterility), and charges more for each product than the rogue suppliers from China and India (search on alibaba.com and you'll find many ...).

Or, it could be that the Texas Board of Pharmacy messed up real badly when it granted a "new pharmacy license" to NuVision Pharmacy, which is is located at the same exact address (with the exception that the suite number was changed from 100 to 110) as Apothecure Pharmacy, a pharmacy that has killed at least 3 people with adulterated/misbranded colchicine and has had a host of other regulatory problems, allowing NuVision to then get non-resident pharmacy licenses in dozens of other states at the same time that Apothecure's licenses were being revoked or voluntarily relinquished.

Kenneth Woliner, MD
www.holisticfamilymed.cim