• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Health / Medicine / Senator Harkin calls drug compounding bill a rare bipartisan success

Senator Harkin calls drug compounding bill a rare bipartisan success

November 19, 2013 By O. Kay Henderson

The U.S. House and Senate have passed a bill Senator Tom Harkin helped guide through congress, giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate so-called compounding pharmacies. “They’ll be subject to FDA oversight in much the same way as traditional drug manufacturers are today,” Harkin says. “FDA will know who these outsourcers are and what they are making.”

A meningitis outbreak that killed at least 64 and sickened over 700 last year was traced to a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts that mixed a steroid medication and sent the drug to clinics and hospitals in 23 different states. Compounding pharmacies traditionally mixed injectable drugs, creams and other medications for individual patients with a prescription, but the demand for certain medications has led to mass production at some compounding pharmacies — which have been regulated by the states. “We found out it was sort of a confusing mess for everybody about who was responsible and who wasn’t,” Harkin says.

Harkin calls the bill a rare triumph of bipartisan cooperation in congress. “This is a bill that many might say is long overdue, but better late than never,” Harkin says. “I’m sorry it took a terrible calamity like the outbreak of meningitis to really focus on this and move it, but it did.”

The bill gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to inspect pharmacies that mix drug compounds and ship them across state lines. Small pharmacies that mix drugs for an individual with a prescription will still be regulated by states. More than 14,000 patients got injections from the three contaminated batches of steroids mixed at the compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts that was shut down after last year’s meningitis outbreak.

The bill cleared the Senate Monday and is on its way to the president’s desk for his review.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Health / Medicine, News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Democratic Party, Republican Party, Tom Harkin

Featured Stories

Exhibit features lesser known works of Grant Wood

Testing finds 21 new CWD cases in deer

It may become a crime in Iowa to use fake urine in workplace drug tests

February trending 18 degrees below average temperature

Iowa House Education Committee votes to end tenure at UI, ISU, UNI

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Drake falls to No. 20 Loyola in MVC Championship

Confusion at MVC Tournament as UNI exits prior to quarterfinal round game

Iowa State looks to avoid winless Big-12 season

New look and new format at girls’ state basketball

Youngstown State takes action against assistant football coach

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC