LP: We don't need no stinking regulations. There looking into two firms that are accused of spreading Meningtis.
Sen. Scott Brown has responded to questions from NewsCenter 5 about a July 24, 2012 letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration that he and ten other Senators signed, calling for changes in the way it allows compounding pharmacies to dispense controlled drugs.
The letter was initiated by the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacies, an industry group that is leading the fight to change DEA regulations.
The compounding pharmacy industry is under increased scrutiny in the wake of a federal investigation into contaminated steroid shots that appear to be the cause of deadly fungal meningitis cases in ten states. The shots were supplied by the New England Compounding Pharmacy in Framingham, Mass.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 people have died and 170 cases have been reported in recent weeks. More cases are expected.
Speaking in Hudson Thursday, Brown said the letter "speaks for itself as a bipartisan effort that is completely unrelated to what happened to these people."
The letter criticizes the DEA’s current practice that "requires intrathecal drugs (and all controlled substances) to be routed to patients before their physicians can administer them." Of the 11 senators who signed the letter, six, including Brown, are Republicans. Five are Democrats.
Kevin Outterson, a Boston University law professor who also serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics said, "Letters like this one that Sen. Brown signed are frequently used by their lobbyists to stop any further regulation of this industry."
Brown said the focus now should be on tracking down what went wrong.
"This is an industry that needs to be addressed, obviously, by the people here in Massachusetts. They have oversight. Where the laws are appropriate we need to enforce them. If there's been a breakdown then they obviously need to find where that breakdown is and address it," he said.
Rep. Edward Markey, (D -Mass.), and others have called for the Food and Drug Administration to take over regulatory control of compounding pharmacies across the country in the wake of the recent deaths.
Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/politics/Senator-Scott-Brown-defends-letter-on-pharmacy-regulations/-/9848766/16950402/-/hixcdez/-/index.html#ixzz292TpwZTq
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