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Nearly 600 pets have died and more than 3,600 have been sickened in an ongoing, mysterious outbreak of illnesses tied to jerky treats made in China, federal animal health officials said Tuesday. Most of the cases have been in dogs of all breeds, ages and sizes, although 10 cats have been sickened, too. The pace of the reported illnesses appears to have slowed, but federal Food and Drug Administration officials are now seeking extra help from veterinarians and pet owners in solving the ongoing puzzle.“To date, testing for contaminants in jerky treats has not revealed a cause for the illnesses,” Martine...

Just heard on the drive in that Ben Venue, a maker of cancer drugs (generic and on contract), will be going out of business. They have been working through a consent decree with the FDA for quality system issues and stated: "the company cannot return to sustainable production." Their announcement here: http://www.benvenue.com/news_/press_releases/october_3_2013.html 1100 folks in Beford Ohio will be impacted.

Throughout its long history, the Federal Food and Drug Administration has insisted that its mission is “protecting and promoting your health.” Take that your seriously. In area after area, the record suggests that the paternalist FDA fails you in its announced purpose. Far from protecting “your health,” the FDA prevents you from making the informed decisions to preserve and promote your own health. All too often, the FDA lacks both the judgment and technical expertise to decide which treatments ordinary people may choose to undergo and which they must turn aside. To take one example, the FDA’s critics have bemoaned...

The Food and Drug Administration would have greater oversight over large volume compounding pharmacies like the Massachusetts company that triggered a deadly meningitis outbreak, under federal legislation winning bipartisan support. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democratic chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, said Wednesday that the bill calls for an “unprecedented tracing system that will track prescription drugs from manufacturing to distribution.” The FDA would be able to monitor the pharmacies much the way they regulate drug-makers, including through inspections. The system would replace what critics say is the existing patchwork of federal regulations over the...

<p>Top U.S. law enforcement officials urged the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to promptly issue a promised set of rules governing the sale of e-cigarettes, adding to a growing body of legal and public health officials demanding action.</p> <p>In 2009, the FDA was given authority to regulate cigarettes, cigarette tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco, although not pipe tobacco, cigars or e-cigarettes. The law allows the FDA to expand its authority over all tobacco products, but it must first issue new regulations. The FDA has said they are in development.</p>

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is paying six figures to a group that worked for the "Obama for America" campaign to monitor its social media platforms so it can be more effective on Facebook and Twitter. The agency awarded $182,814 to IB5k, a company billing itself as "the People Who Brought You Obama '08," to provide "comprehensive coverage" of the FDA's social media websites.

Federal health regulators will begin tracking millions of medical devices, from pacemakers to hip replacements, using a new electronic system designed to protect patients by catching problematic implants earlier. The Food and Drug Administration published new rules Friday that require most medical devices sold in the U.S. to carry a unique code, identifying its make, manufacture date and lot number. The codes will be stored in a publicly accessible database to help regulators, doctors and companies monitor safety issues with devices. The tracking system has been promoted by doctors and public safety advocates for years. Other industries, from food processors...

The FDA wants to exercise its nanny power by banning menthol cigarettes in another futile bid to protect people from themselves but law enforcement warns that "prohibition will spur smuggling, counterfeit cigs and other organized crime" as reported by Dan Mangan for CNBC. Paul Carey III, chief of enforcement for the Northern Virginia Cigarette Tax Board, says "the contraband market would thrive under a ban, and would increase criminal activity, including activities by organized crime and terrorist groups." The profit margin for organized crime from contraband tobacco has surpassed the drug trade according to a recent report by the Virginia...

Stop—a ban on menthol cigarettes—in the name of the law! A number of current and former top-ranking law enforcement officials from the tobacco-producing South have blasted a potential menthol cigarette ban as the Food and Drug Administration weighs restrictions on those products, contending that prohibition will spur smuggling, counterfeit cigs and other organized crime. Their comments to the FDA mirror arguments being made by Big Tobacco companies that have cited the specter of a menthol black market. But tobacco critics and a former top New York state tax official scoffed at those claims, and accused tobacco companies of scare tactics...

SPOILAGE IN CANNED FOOD PRODUCTS By: Stephanie Hoffman, CSU Food Science Graduate Student - Fall 2008 The safety of commercially canned foods is generally not of concern to consumers, but recent national recalls of canned chili products and institutional-size cans of vegetables due to potential contamination with Clostridium botulinum is a reminder that store-bought canned goods can be implicated in foodborne illness outbreaks. These were the first recalls of commercially canned foods in the U.S. linked to botulism in 33 years and improper processing that allowed the survival of C. botulinum spores appears to have been the cause. Home canners...

Three major drugstore chains—CVS, RiteAid, and Walgreens—have moved “Plan B,” a drug that can induce an abortion, onto the open shelves in their stores, where it is now sold like aspirin or other non-prescription drugs. In April, Judge Edward Korman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the drug available on a non-prescription basis to women “of all ages.” On June 20, the FDA announced that it had approved the non-prescription sale of Plan B to all women who have “reproductive potential” no matter what their age....

Whenever athletes test positive for steroids, the excuses come flying. My least favorite has always been that they didn’t knowingly ingest steroids or other banned compounds. Somehow, the vitamins or protein shakes must have been tainted. I’ve been responsible for many different aspects of managing the use of pharmaceutical products for years and I have always found this excuse to be laughable. Until now. On July 26, the FDA released a statement warning consumer that a vitamin-B supplement has been shown to have two different anabolic steroids — methasterone and dimethazine. The FDA started looking into Healthy Life Chemistry By...

Are we really losing the war on cancer? Clifton Leaf’s provocative new book, “The Truth in Small Doses,” claims we are. He’s a bit off-base there — but his prescription is dead on: The key to success is scrapping bureaucratic science and embracing tools that can attack cancer at the speed of life... --snip-- Bottom line: Much of the money for cancer research is poured into an approach that is as deadly as the disease. And we stick to this approach because Food and Drug Administration rules for testing new drugs, and National Cancer Institute guidelines for getting grants to...

Federal regulators are looking at menthol cigarettes for possible new regulations, arguing that the products raise "critical" health concerns. The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it was beginning the process of regulating the variety of flavored cigarettes by gathering comments from the public. “Menthol cigarettes raise critical public health questions,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg in a statement. “The FDA is committed to a science-based approach that addresses the public health issues raised by menthol cigarettes, and public input will help us make more informed decisions about how best to tackle this important issue moving forward.” Among...

“I can fight the bugs, I can fight the lack of rain, but when the guy comes with a clipboard what are you going to do?”, asks farmer who’s shutting down his business, thanks to the Obama FDA: Bessemer called it quits out of frustration with pending federal food safety regulations that likely will require farmers to very specifically track their produce and how it is handled from seed to sale, among other things. The new rules are part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, sweeping changes within the Food and Drug Administration aimed at making our food system safer...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that generic drugmakers cannot be sued under state law for adverse reactions to their products, a decision that consumer advocates called a blow to patient safety. In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled for Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, overturning a multimillion-dollar jury award to a badly injured patient in New Hampshire who alleged a generic drug she had taken was unsafe based on its chemical design. The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said the state's law could not run against...

If you or your kids enjoy pre-packaged convenience foods commonly found in grocery stores across the U.S. such as Froot Loops, Swanson dinners, Mountain Dew, and frozen potato and bread products, you may think twice before purchasing them after hearing what they contain: dangerous chemicals that other countries around the globe have deemed toxic to the point that they're illegal, and companies are fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for including them in food products. In a new book Rich Food, Poor Food, authors Mira and Jason Calton provide a list of what they term "Banned Bad Boys" - ingredients...

Judicial Watch has obtained new information indicating that the U.S. government is likely covering up a scandal involving an Army sergeant who apparently took a controversial anti-malaria drug—in contradiction to guidelines—before going on a rampage in Afghanistan. The 39-year-old married father of two, Sergeant Robert Bales, was on his fourth deployment in a decade when he attacked and murdered 16 Afghan civilians (initial reports said it was 17) on March 11, 2012. Judicial Watch immediately launched an investigation and obtained documents from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that raised huge suspicions that Bales may have been given the anti-malaria...

Typically environmental organizations target consumers with overwrought warnings of how some everyday product or activity is destroying the world and threatening their health. Yet now, activists are turning their targets toward major retailers. These companies should reject these scare tactics, which will harm not only their businesses, but consumers too. The “Mind the Store” campaign, the latest initiative of a radical environmental organization, pressures the nation’s top ten largest retailers to remove products from store shelves that contain, in any amount, a list of one hundred chemicals the organization deems hazardous. Following the alarmism playbook, the organization claims these chemicals...

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "poison" as "a substance that is capable of causing the illness or death of a living organism when introduced or absorbed." The legal definition of the term is "any product or substance that can harm someone if it is used in the wrong way, by the wrong person, or in the wrong amount." The medical condition of poisoning is even broader: It can be caused by substances that are not even legally required to carry the label "poison." Therefore, can food become poisonous? Of course it can if it is infected, tampered with or altered...