Opinions
Opinions
| Date | Opinions | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 3, 2012 |
''Drug, device reform gets bipartisan push'' "The U.S. Supreme Court's eagerly awaited Affordable Care Act ruling unfortunately overshadowed the unusually bipartisan work underway at the U.S. Capitol last week, where Congress finalized sweeping legislation crammed with smaller-scale but still vital health reforms." |
Drug Safety, Drugs and Devices at the FDA |
| Jan 3, 2010 |
"One of the profound blessings in the age of modern medicine is that, when infection sets in, doctors can draw upon an array of antibiotics to knock the germs for a loop. Just imagine how it would have been for our ancestors, for whom a simple cut or bad tooth could mean "blood poisoning" and death." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Aug 29, 2011 |
Distribution System OK, But it Can be Exploited Drug distribution may involve many trading partners, which can make it difficult to determine the products’ sources or authenticity. Medicines are often bought and sold across state lines; moved in whole or partial lots; and repackaged or relabeled. These practices may be appropriate, but bad actors also may exploit vulnerabilities in this system. |
Drug Safety |
| Jun 26, 2012 |
''Disclosure can address doctors' conflicts of interest'' Pew Prescription Project Director Daniel Carlat opines in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Monetary relationships among doctors and drug and device companies are not inherently bad; in fact, they are crucial for advancing medical research and patient care. Yet they can also skew prescribing practices and research results. That's why transparency and education are such an elegant solution: They allow these often important relationships to exist, but only on the condition that other professionals and patients are fully informed about them." |
Medical Safety |
| Sep 2, 2010 |
''Delhi's Fake Drug Whitewash'' Counterfeit drug expert Roger Bate said that a report issued by India's Central Drug Standard Control Organization this summer indicating that less than .1% of drugs sampled in the country were fakes is flawed and contradicts well-established findings by the government and scholars that suggest the number of counterfeits is much higher. |
Drug Manufacturing and Distribution, Drug Safety |
| Jul 16, 2012 |
''Delays and Difficulties in Assessing Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants'' More than 500,000 U.S. patients have received metal-on-metal hip prostheses, most of which were implanted between 2003 and 2010. These prostheses entered the market through the 510(k) pathway at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), whereby manufacturers need only demonstrate substantial equivalence to a device already on the market to gain approval. Unfortunately, there is now compelling evidence that these implants fail at a higher rate than hip prostheses made of other materials. |
Drugs and Devices at the FDA |
| Aug 30, 2012 |
''Deadly Wait for Food Safeguards'' Almost two years after President Barack Obama signed the first major changes to food-safety laws since the 1930s, they're still sitting on the back burner. The Office of Management and Budget hasn't signed off on the changes, further delaying reforms that have been debated for years. |
Food Safety |
| Jan 7, 2012 |
"A nonprofit research center based in Phoenix analyzed 80 brands of beef, pork, chicken and turkey in five cities -- and found that 47 percent contained staphylococcus aureus, which can cause everything from skin infections to pneumonia to blood poisoning. Of the staph germs detected, half were antibiotic-resistant." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Oct 22, 2009 |
"Congress blundered badly when it gave the credit card industry as long as 15 months to phase out the deceptive and predatory practices that were outlawed in a new law enacted in May." |
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| Apr 4, 2013 |
''Crackdown Needed on Specialty Pharmacies'' "The deaths and illnesses linked last fall to a New England pharmacy operating in the regulatory shadows as a cut-rate drug manufacturer is one of the biggest pharmaceutical public health disasters in American history." |
Drug Manufacturing and Distribution, Drug Safety |
