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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 ...
I know how they’ll do it!
Want to lower unemployment numbers? Redefine “unemployment.”
Want to lower inflation? Redefine the inflation metrics.
All they have to is redefine “shortage!”
The power of the executive order.
“Couldn’t find any info in the article on how the FDA is supposed to do this, but I’m guessing it’s not by any common-sense approach like reducing regulations, shortening approval times, or anything else that might actually be effective. “
Nope based upon what the articles says, it looks like their just going to mandate the manufacturers tell the FDA that their will be a shortage 6 months in advance.
The mandate may be imposable to comply with. But most likely the Drug company will be forced to reduce sales so that the price so so high that demand will be consistently low enough that they can easily account for surges when they come and go.
If they do that then your looking at permanent artificial shortages.
The reason for the drug shortages is that companies lack proper incentives to produce sufficient quantities of these cheap generic, injected anticancer drugs. That’s essentially because of government price controls.
What Dictator obama’s executive order is designed to do is to accuse the companies of price-gouging that doesn’t exist, and other punitive government regulations that cannot solve the problem.
But the Dictator is using this to play to the Democrat base, to “show” how “evil” the drug companies are, and how “ineffective” Congress is. But even if obama could order the companies to produce the drugs at a loss, they would just go out of business and the shortages would be even worse.
Cancer societies, oncologists, and patient groups should protest this executive order long and loud, and demand market-oriented solutions to the problem—the only approach that will work.
obama lies while cancer patients die!!!!
(But he wants them to die—to “save costs”. That’s the Daschle/Emanuel/Berwick approach!!!!)
Good grief. It’s even worse than I thought.
What I was joking about was the notion of government regulators doing anything productive, especially if it involved anything resembling actual work. But you’re right that a scenario of them taking control of production and distribution decisions is neither implausible nor funny at all.
What is he going to do stop his feet hold his breath?
And how many pharmaceutical factories does the FDA have? Oh, right. None. So who is the EO directed at?
Hmmm. It appears the everything has gone to shit under Obama.
If Obama gets reelected bet on it.
Exactlty. Signing a piece of paper will make the trains run on time, right?
“I don’t know if this is true or not, but it seems to me we’re not far away from being third world.”
You know, it wasn’t too long ago when I read the Soviet Union described as “a third-world country with nuclear weapons”...it’s not so funny now.
If a person is dying of cancer and the pharmaceutical industry isn’t producing a needed drug, I’d probably be very grateful that some hack on the dole of taxpayers who is being paid well to provide for the general well being of the nation actually got off his dead axx and did something.
Why aren’t the Republicans screaming about this instead of allowing Obama to get an upper hand? That’s my question.
But that’s just me and my habit of being critical of the idiots in government regardless of their politics.
I’m in favor of sweeping out every last one of them until they start thinking of country first instead of their own job and getting more power. They are being paid to act in the nation’s interest not their Party’s interest.
What is this? More government involvement in industry? Hey, we all saw how well that worked for the home mortgage industry, didn’t we.
Pretty much destroyed that industry, a lot of our savings, and our jobs.
Now they are going to destroy the evil pharmaceutical industry. Boy, I sure feel better. Hope everyone is stocking up on anything more potent than aspirin.
And that too.
This is the approach that worked so well in the old Soviet Union.
"DING! DING! DING! What do we have for him, Johnny?"
apoliticalone, is it your view that the government should be involved directly in mandating what drugs should be produced, in what quantity and at what price?
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