FDA Can't Keep Up With Compounding Pharmacies
As I've written before, political pressure is one of the factors that keep us from having a safe drug supply.
This is frightening, is it? (Especially worrisome to me, since my doctor wants me to get injections in my neck.) We have a real problem with the pharmaceutical industry in this country, and we do not have a thorough system of ensuring a reliably safe drug supply. This story spells out some of the problems:
A year before people began dying of meningitis caused by a tainted drug from a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts, the Food and Drug Administration worried that compounders across the country might be selling another substandard drug, one possibly made with unapproved Chinese ingredients.
But when the F.D.A. began seeking samples to test, the trade group representing compounding pharmacists went on the offensive. Instead of encouraging members to help the agency determine if the injectable drug, used to reduce the risk of premature birth, was substandard, the group tutored pharmacists on how to sidestep requests.
In an e-mail to members, the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists suggested that they respond to any request for samples by saying: “We do not compound or distribute ‘samples’ of any of our prescription medications to anyone.” And if a compounded drug was on the premises, the trade group added, a pharmacist should say it was awaiting pickup by a patient.
