Cheers!
Posted on 10/31/2011 1:56:39 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
Acting once again without Congress, President Obama on Monday was directing the Food and Drug Administration to take steps to reduce drug shortages that administration officials say have placed patients at risk and led to price gouging.
The president signed an executive order -- his fifth in a week -- instructing the FDA to take action absent congressional approval.
Last year, the FDA reported 178 drug shortages -- mainly cancer drugs, anesthetics, electrolytes and emergency room drugs -- and the agency says it continues to see an increase in shortages this year. The White House also announced Obama's support for House and Senate legislation that would require drug makers to notify the FDA six months ahead of a potential shortage. Under current regulations, drug manufactures are only required to notify the FDA if medically necessary drugs are being discontinued. Notification of shortages is strictly voluntary.
In remarks before he signed the order, Obama said drug shortages have nearly tripled over the past five years while Congress has foundered.
"Even though the FDA has successfully prevented an actual crisis, this is one of those slow-rolling problems that could end up resulting in disaster for patients and health care facilities all across the country," he said. "Congress has been trying since February to do something about this. It has not yet been able to get it done. And it is the belief of this administration ... that we can't wait for action on the Hill."
The executive action is part of an overarching push by the White House to portray Obama, who is facing ...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
How many executive orders can this dictator issue?
In all seriousness, the FDA can do this right now as "observers." They'd just start giving "suggestions" if Obama signed the papers.
For his next Executive Order, President Obama the Almighty will command the flood tide to ebb.
“Believe me, with the attitudes of some FDA inspectors, they act like the plants are theirs.”
I am not surprised. There are so many control organizations in the government these days much of a company’s resources has to be to be eaten by government meddling.
For his next Executive Order, President Obama the Almighty will command the flood tide to ebb.
Why are we paying Congress if they are worthless? They should grow some and do their duty to either maintain equal powers or begin impeachment orders.
Slightly more than four of those five years were UNIFIED DEMOCRAT CONGRESSES. But Obama won't mention this.
Xerxes I orders a river beaten-to-death when a storm destroys two bridges.
Two fools railing against forces beyond their control; both utterly childish.
Hmmnnn....
Seems like things might have been improving until the rats took over congress.
Good observation. Those generic companies got “greedy:” they wanted to make a profit. The prospect of Obummercare took the juice out for the manufacturers (while that’s not ALL of the problem, it is some of it).
I’m in the industry and yes, we’re experiencing some major shortages but they are mainly in the form of injectible drugs and for the most part are older drugs - in some cases, grandfathered products. This means that while most are safe and work just fine, they never underwent the clinical trials that are now the norm. Never mind the reams upon reams of data that support they are ok. FDA is clamping down on these drugs and forcing companies to perform clincals. It’s just not cost effective. For a generic company with tons of competition it can easily run a few million dollars for these trials. Most generic companies don’t have the sales to support that kind of investment.
Also - many chemical companies are opting not to manufacture certain active ingredients. For a drug company that means finding and qualifying a new source. That can take months and I can tell you from experience, these chemical companies have dramatically increased pricing over the past few years. So again, a generic company needs to look at the financial models. For every sale to a drug wholesaler, we pay them BACK about $0.50 on the dollar for required programs, rebates, etc. The fact is, you pay more for a box of Altoids than a generic Rx company is allowed to sell a drug for to a retailer. More and more of us simply cannot afford to manufacture what we could in the past. The whole system is broke and there is no way requiring a manufacturer to give 6 months notice will work. Things are too dynamic with raw material supply and logistics especially as Custom’s holds our deliveries longer and longer.
LOL - we had one inspector come in and tell us what a good job we were doing - no 483 issued. Next year we get inspected and the inspector tells us we were out of compliance and we got a Warning Letter. We said well what about last year and were told, well I am right and she was wrong. You cannot make this crap up.
Never underestimate levels of stupidity.
I thought this scam in 2009 was supposed to do this? What happened to this $80,000,000,000?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31485134/ns/politics-white_house/#.Tq8ke_Sa9GV
Cheers!
The same thing has happened to us.
How many years before they’ve screwed this industry up so badly that people start demanding it be nationalized.
Obama has to get us ready for Obamacare. If he can kill off enough of the population, and blame congress, that jobless number is bound to go down. I believe he’s that evil. Commanding the FDA to make it so will do precisely d*** to solve the problem.
To borrow from da Forehead (aka Paul Begala):
“Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool!”
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