Originally published July 6 2012
FDA's shutting down of faulty drug manufacturing facilities 'over-aggressive and excessive,' says Congress
by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Several members of Congress are up in arms over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s recent crackdown on faulty drug manufacturing facilities across the country. According to the Washington Examiner and several other news outlets, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (HOGRC) Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Cal.) has issued a public statement in protest of the FDA's regulatory actions, dubbing them "over-aggressive and excessive," and responsible for causing widespread shortages of "life-saving" drugs.
Dozens of drugs have had to be recalled just within the past year due to contamination, production, labeling, and dosage problems, which is why the FDA sent out 1,720 warning letters to drug companies -- the agency only sent out 474 warning letters in 2009 -- notifying them that changes needed to be made. But now Congress has turned the issue into a partisan one, and is actually accusing the FDA of doing too much in trying to protect the public from unsafe drugs.
Rep. Issa flip-flops on FDA enforcement actions
As many NaturalNews readers will remember, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), voluntarily shut down its Fort Washington, Penn., facility back in 2010 after a series of drug recalls that included several million containers of various children's medicines. (http://www.naturalnews.com/030504_Johnson_&_recalls.html) It turned out that the McNeil manufacturing plant producing these medicines was infested with bacteria and filth. (http://consumerist.com)
At that time, Rep. Issa and several others issued a joint statement expressing concern about the filthy conditions at the McNeil plant, and actually indicted the FDA for allegedly failing to conduct proper inspections and recall procedures that Rep. Issa and others implied would have kept the public safe from the tainted products. (http://www.ipqpubs.com) Now, however, more than two years after his previous statements, Rep. Issa is singing a different tune, claiming that the FDA is doing too much to protect the public.
According to Rep. Issa, drug companies are having to slow or even stop production of certain "life-saving" drugs in order to come into compliance with FDA standards. So putting the lives of millions of patients at risk from exposure to tainted drugs is apparently not that big of a priority anymore since the FDA's regulatory actions are now cutting into Big Pharma's profit margins -- or as Rep. Issa and his cohorts have put it, "failing to ensure the availability of quality products."
So when the FDA steps in to stop drug companies from dispensing contaminated drugs, the agency is needlessly obstructing the nation's supply chain of critical drugs, in Rep. Issa's opinion. But when the FDA pursues supplement manufacturers, threatens walnut and cherry growers, and shuts down family farms (http://www.naturalnews.com/033280_FDA_raids_... target="_blank">http://www.naturalnews.com/033280_FDA_raids_...), it is apparently just business as usual in the corrupt world of regulatory politics.
Rep. Issa was nowhere to be found when the FDA needlessly destroyed the entire business of Pennsylvania Amish farmer Dan Allgyer, obstructing access to that area's supply chain of raw milk. (http://www.naturalnews.com/035000_Amish_farmers_raw_milk_feds.html) He was also nowhere to be found when the FDA participated in a SWAT-style raid on Rawesome Foods near Los Angeles, Cal., which interfered with that local area's supply chain of organic, natural, and untainted foods. (http://www.naturalnews.com/033220_Rawesome_Foods_armed_raids.html)
For once, the FDA is actually doing a decent job of pursuing the dirty players in the drug industry, and Rep. Issa and others in Congress are complaining that these actions are inappropriate. It just goes to show how deeply corrupted the American political system has become.
Sources for this article include:
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com
http://in.reuters.com
http://www.forbes.com
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