Thursday, May 30, 2013

Is it True: Pharma Trying to put Vet Compounding Pharmacies Out of Business?

ig Pharma Trying to put Vet Compounding Pharmacies Out of Business
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Proven ingredients mixed to create effective medicines to become illegal if big pharma gets it's way. These money hungry sluts want to control everything related to the drug market. No doubt medication for people will be next!

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You have used compounded medications for your pet, and those medications are under attack by the big drug companies.

The big drug companies are trying to intrude on your relationship with your veterinarian and your pets. Last month, a provision they proposed was temporarily removed from a Senate bill (S.959) that would have greatly limited your vet’s ability to prescribe compounded medication for dogs, cats and horses.

This provision allowed the FDA to severely restrict compounded medications for dogs, cats and horses. Treatment options for elephants, giraffes, hamsters and other “minor species” were not limited. Yes, you are reading this correctly. The proposal actually targets family pets and horses. Why? Because that’s where the money is.

The proposal is the work of the Animal Health Institute (AHI), a group created and funded by the big drug companies. They want your money. You and your vet want the best possible care for your pets.

We know that many pet owners rely on compounded medication to treat serious and chronic conditions in your pets. They can be literally lifesavers. But now, we hear those corporate interests who would put profits before pets are hoping to insert this provision back in as early as late June when S.959 is debated on the Senate floor. As one AHI lobbyist was quoted in the trade press: “We hope our absence from the bill is temporary.” What’s more, the same drug company lobbyist criticized the “permissiveness” of the original language restricting treatment options for your pets. Have they no shame? 

We can’t let that happen. The consequences are too severe. Please take action today to tell Congress to leave medical decisions about dogs, cats and horses to you and your veterinarian.

http://www.mymedsmatter.com/?vvsrc=/Camp...95/Respond



Animal Health Institute - Big Pharma lobby group. Located 1000 feet from the White House.

This post is quoted from here

http://www.ahi.org/about/member-directory/

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safar...IgBEPwSMAA

Update: Texas Board of Pharmacy Is Seeking Pharmacits to Assist in Disciplinary Proceedings??? Are there Going to Be So Many Their Lawyers Can't Handle Them? Are Maybe so Complex and Relating to Compounding That It Makes More Sense for Pharmacists to Handle Them?

  1. TSBP is seeking pharmacists to assist in disciplinary proceedings, including case preparation and presentation for...

    Here is what the FB link says:

    TSBP is seeking pharmacists to assist in disciplinary proceedings, including case preparation and presentation for non-therapeutic dispensing and negligent practice cases. To learn more about this opportunity to advance professional care and concern for the practice of pharmacy, contact Caroline Hotchkiss at 512/305-8046.

KUDOS--This Article MAKES AN EXCELLENT POINT THAT HAS BEEN MADE SEVERAL TIMES ON THIS BLOG: Make pharmacy regulations meaningful May 28, 2013 10:12 PM

OUR VIEW

How much clearer does it have to be? The laws that are meant to ensure compounded medications are safe are not getting the job done.
Last year’s outbreak of fungal meningitis caused by contaminated medicine killed 55 patients, including 15 people in Tennessee. Hundreds more were sickened.
And yet, another compounding pharmacy, this one in West Tennessee, has been identified as the likely source of a new spate of infections in North Carolina and Illinois.
Facilities in 13 states overall received supplies of the medicine.
Main Street Family Pharmacy LLC in Newbern has now recalled all its sterile products. Tennessee health officials on Tuesday released the names of seven Tennessee facilities that received the drug.
Main Street shipped the medications about two weeks after state inspectors found violations at the pharmacy in November. Inspectors concluded that “the processes they were following at the time did not indicate there was any problem,” says Terry Grinder, interim director of the Tennessee Pharmacy Board.
How can that be, since the inspection helped lead to Main Street’s top pharmacist being fined and placed on two years’ probation; 109 medications on the pharmacy’s shelves were found to be outdated, and 11 prescriptions were not written on tamper-resistant paper as required under state law?
Main Street also was cited in 2011 for having expired medications used for drug compounding; sterilization equipment out of compliance; and shipping compounded drugs directly to physicians’ offices without patient-specific prescriptions, a direct violation of state law.
The state did not shut down the pharmacy then, either.
So maybe these dangerous problems continue because compounding pharmacies know that the consequences for breaking the rules are minor, if they are imposed at all.
And let’s not pretend that health officials and pharmacies do not understand the risk to patients’ safety if their medications are not compounded under strictly controlled conditions and made for specific patients. The deadly outbreak caused by the New England Compounding Center unfolded before Main Street was inspected in November.
Then, early in 2013, the Tennessee General Assembly acted irresponsibly by approving a loophole in the specific-patient prescription requirement. It was suggested that the risk of shortages outweighs the risk of contamination.
That is an important discussion to have, but why are the only options ample supply or lax safeguards? Shouldn’t compounding pharmacies ensure that they are adequately staffed and supplied without resorting to shortcuts?
Pharmacists are not physicians, but they are their partners in care. Shouldn’t they also adhere to the key tenet, “First, do no harm”?
quoted from here

NABP Testifies at US House Subcommittee Hearing Regarding Support for Federal Legislation to Distinguish Between Compounding and Manufacturing May 29, 2013 6:15 pm

Topics: Compounding

NABP expressed its support for federal legislation that would distinguish between compounding and manufacturing, in testimony (PDF) presented at a United States House subcommittee hearing on May 23, 2013. The hearing, “Examining Drug Compounding” was held to provide US Committee on Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee members an opportunity to hear testimony from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and health care experts regarding the importance of drug compounding to patients and the current regulation of compounding on the federal and state levels. In its testimony, NABP noted that the clarifications in the proposed Pharmaceutical Compounding Quality and Accountability Act (S 959) regarding the distinction between compounding and manufacturing “provide a safe and equitable environment for both compounding and manufacturing to occur in the best interest of the patient.” The Association stressed that the distinction between compounding and manufacturing is “critical to maintain the present authority of the states and address one of the contributing factors to the NECC [New England Compounding Center] crisis, specifically, the ambiguous authority between the states and FDA.”  The proposed legislation also specifies that a “compounding manufacturer” cannot be licensed as a pharmacy, and NABP notes that this provision is “essential to distinguishing between state-regulated compounding and FDA-regulated manufacturing.”
continue reading here