Showing posts with label Congress must keep medications safe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Congress must keep medications safe. Show all posts

Monday, June 17, 2013

Congress must keep medications safe


Written by
Tommy G. Thompson
The Food and Drug Administration is sounding alarm bells warning health-care providers that an injectable drug produced by a compounding pharmacy in Tennessee has been implicated in more than a dozen illnesses. If the story sounds eerily familiar, that’s because it is.
Last year’s outbreak of fungal meningitis that has resulted in more than 740 cases of serious illness and claimed the lives of 55 individuals was also the result of tainted medication, and, in both cases, the manufacturing pharmacies were producing and distributing medicines to clinics and hospitals across the country without FDA approval and oversight for manufacturing quality. Such incidents appear to be happening with increased frequency given a current lack of clarity in law.
American consumers expect that the medications they take are not only effective, but safe. There’s a good reason for this. As a country we have made a commitment to rigorous oversight by the FDA. And while the rigor of this process requires a substantial financial investment and is time-consuming, the result is a high level of safety and confidence in our nation’s drug supply. But when compounded medications are mass-manufactured and distributed all over the country without FDA oversight, public health is compromised.
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