ASHP Pushes Congress To Expand FDA Funding To Ensure Medication Safety

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 11 Apr 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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ASHP stressed the critical need to boost funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) so that the agency can thoroughly monitor the safety of medications during a series of meetings on Wednesday.

ASHP joined fellow members of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA for its Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill. The alliance is a broad-based, 180-member coalition seeking to increase FDA appropriations from Congress as the agency faces an increasing workload.

Joseph Hill, ASHP's director of federal legislative affairs, warned congressional staff that more medications are introduced to the market every year, making the need for FDA testing for safety even more important. "The FDA must have sufficient resources to perform adequate testing of medications before they are approved for public use and after they are released onto the market," he said.

"We're extremely concerned. The FDA needs necessary resources to keep up with the changing world of medications," Hill told one legislative assistant. "We'd like to see the agency modernized."

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists