Opinions

# results: 91-105 of 156
Show items per page
Date Opinions Topic
Apr 15, 2012

''Antibiotics Off the Farm''

"Two important events in recent weeks a regulatory guideline and a federal court decision have raised hopes that progress can be made in curbing the widespread use of antibiotics ... "

More

Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Apr 19, 2012

''Raw need for food safety''

"A 20-state outbreak of salmonella, which includes Pennsylvania, demonstrates the pervasiveness of food-borne illness, the vast scope of the challenge to ensure safe food, and the federal government's slow pace of implementing reforms."

More

Food Hazards
Apr 27, 2012

''Food Safety on Hold''

"While the first lady, Michelle Obama, champions the issue of healthy food, the rest of the administration does not seem to have gotten the message."

More

Food Hazards
May 9, 2012

''Mad Cow Is Reason to Change Rules, Not Swear Off Beef''

"The U.S. needs a more efficient overall inspection regimen. Of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year, only 40,000 -- much less than 0.1 percent -- are tested."

More

Food Hazards
May 19, 2012

''Eric J. Greene: Landmark food law in political limbo?''

"When President Barack Obama last year signed a bill hailed as a milestone in food safety, he stood at an exceedingly rare intersection where persuasive majorities of businesses, policymakers and consumers wanted the same thing."

More

Food Hazards
May 22, 2012

''Opinion: OMB should release new food safety rules''

"Six months ago, the Food and Drug Administration met the deadline set by Congress to complete a set of proposed rules for implementing the landmark Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010. It submitted those proposals to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. They haven't been seen or heard of since."

More

Food Hazards
Jun 6, 2012

''Ignoring salmonella inexcusable''

"Just when you think the Jack DeCoster egg empire couldn't look more rotten ... well, this just in: Court records managers at one of DeCoster's Iowa egg farms knew its hens were "almost certainly" laying contaminated eggs months before one of the nation's largest outbreaks of food-borne illness."

More

Food 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."

More

Medical Safety
Jul 1, 2012

''Next steps to thwart 'superbugs'''

"An old saying goes, you don't miss your water till your well runs dry. When it comes to antibiotics, we're not only running out of water but there are no rain clouds on the horizon. The overuse and underdevelopment of these drugs have brought us close to the brink of a world without cures for deadly infections."

More

Drug Manufacturing and Distribution, Antibiotic Innovation, Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
Jul 2, 2012

''Meat and ‘superbugs’''

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in 1977 that it would begin prohibiting the use of some anti­biotics in agriculture, but Congress objected and nothing happened. Since then, the need for restraint has grown. The wonder drugs of the 20th century have been so widely used that germs are becoming resistant to them, giving rise to “superbugs,” bacteria that are immune to one or more antibiotics. Tens of thousands of people die every year from hospital-acquired infections, the vast majority of which result from such resistant bacteria."

More

Antibiotics in Food Animal Production
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."

More

Drug Safety, Drugs and Devices at the FDA
Jul 11, 2012

''Resistance to antibiotics is becoming a crisis''

In an editorial stressing the need for new antibiotics, the Washington Post cites that some bacteria have become resistant to multiple antibiotics while the pipeline of new drugs is drying up. But a promising step by Congress could give pharmaceutical companies the incentive they need.

More

Antibiotic Innovation
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.

More

Drugs and Devices at the FDA
Jul 17, 2012

''Fund the food safety law''

"About six years ago my mother-in-law and I were both sickened by E. coli in bagged spinach we had in our home. I survived a painful illness, but my mother-in-law perished eight days after eating the tainted food."

More

Food Hazards
Jul 24, 2012

A Healthy Dose of Bipartisanship

Passed by Congress on June 26 and signed by President Obama on July 9, the FDA Safety and Innovation Act will increase inspections of foreign manufacturers that supply 80 percent of the ingredients in our pharmaceuticals, putting American companies on the same footing as their foreign competitors. In addition, it requires drug makers to hold their suppliers to high standards.

More

Medical Safety