Letter to the Editor Patients will be protected under Senate bill regulating compounding pharmacies Sunday, August 11, 5:52 PM

Contrary to the claims made in an Aug. 5 letter from B. Douglas Hoey of the National Community Pharmacists Association [“A Senate bill’s bad medicine on pharmacies”], legislation pending in the Senate would help ensure that patients have safe sources of compounded drugs by distinguishing between traditional compounding pharmacies and manufacturers masquerading as pharmacies, and by clarifying the responsibilities of the Food and Drug Administration and state regulatory agencies. Most important, it closes loopholes in the state-federal regulatory systems — the same loopholes that allowed the fungal meningitis outbreak linked to the New England Compounding Center to occur.
The bill would ensure that patients can continue to receive compounded medications from their pharmacies and compounded medications for administration at their doctors’ office, clinics and hospitals — as they always have — with one important difference: Patients will be protected by clear regulatory oversight and safeguards, and not fall victim to tragedies such as the fungal meningitis outbreak. This is a proposal that provides the strong public health protections that patients need and deserve.

Carmen Catizone, Mount Prospect, Ill.

The writer is executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

quoted from the Washington Post