Governing by Executive Order – Again….

Acting once again ahead of Congress, President Obama is directing the Food and Drug Administration to take steps to reduce drug shortages, an escalating problem that has placed patients at risk and raised the possibility of price gouging.

A White House official said the president planned to sign an executive order Monday instructing the FDA to take action. The order would be the latest in the president’s campaign to move on initiatives that do not require congressional approval.

Last year, the FDA reported 178 drug shortages, and the agency says it continues to see an increase in shortages this year. These scarcities tend to affect cancer drugs, anesthetics, drugs used in emergency medicine, and electrolytes needed for intravenous feeding.

http://conservativebyte.com/2011/10/gov ... der-again/

and the problem is?

if Congress is obstructing, then the president is EXPECTED to do what is within the law to protect US citizens. I see no problem with this.

Great, what did Perry do now?

soul, who is president? :VeryScared:

Was this posted because you think this is a bad thing outdoor? Of so, why is it bad? I ran into a shortage of my chemotherapy drug last year, shortages like that can have a huge effect on patients. Good for the president doing what needs to be done. It's damn scary when you don't know if the drug that is supposed to be saving your life will be available when you need it.

archer wrote: Was this posted because you think this is a bad thing outdoor? Of so, why is it bad? I ran into a shortage of my chemotherapy drug last year, shortages like that can have a huge effect on patients. Good for the president doing what needs to be done. It's damn scary when you don't know if the drug that is supposed to be saving your life will be available when you need it.

And that the slimebags controlling the supply don't manufacture a shortage to jack up the price and gouge the people that need it... (Like a cancer drug that retails for $12/vial...suddenly going to $990/vial...due to "shortages"...) Uh-huh....

(Think: OIL....)

But hey, let's just do it the teabagger way: "Let 'em die."

Here is a pretty good article on the drug shortage.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/ ... GI20111014

Sounds like a pretty big problem since 2010 and nobody including the FDA seems to know what is going on. SNAFU ?

"Anybody who is sure they know the answer to this question is probably kidding themselves," said Peter Lurie, a senior adviser in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of the Commissioner, who works on public health issues, including drug shortages.

Here is an interesting opinion piece by a PhD pharma dude. Doesn't sound like there is a quick fix to this problem, and this exec order is adding nothing new.

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/20 ... xactly.php

"And when you look at the executive order itself, you find that there's not much there. It directs FDA to expedite reviews of new suppliers and new manufacturing sites, but aren't they doing that already? And it also tells the agency to send out letters to all the companies, reminding them to remind the FDA about potential shortages"

:thumbsup:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/opini ... .html?_r=2

Here is another article. Possible unintended consequence of medicare prescription drug law/price controls.

Never good to rule by executive order whether the intent is perceived as good or not. I don't like where this guy is going...