The Partnership for Safe Medicines, a group of organizations and individuals dedicated to protect consumers from counterfeit medicines, issued the following statement regarding today's hearing on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Globalization Act of 2008 held by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health.
Dubbed by supporters as the “FDA reform bill,” the Partnership for Safe Medicines thanks Rep. John Dingell and other members of the Committee for moving this legislation forward. Recent events have demonstrated that reform is necessary, and overdue.
However, we encourage Congress to view this reform bill and other similar legislation as the beginning of drug safety efforts in our country, not the end. The FDA needs authority to destroy unapproved drugs entering our country rather than returning them to the criminals who sent them here in the first place. We need to require Internet pharmacies to be certified so customers can recognize which pharmacies are legitimate and which are rogues selling questionable items. And, we need to stop online pharmacies from selling a controlled substance over the Internet without a valid prescription.
While the government works to develop a plan to protect Americans, the Partnership encourages everyone to learn how they can take steps to protect themselves from contraband and potentially counterfeit medicines—because counterfeit drugs are unsafe at any cost.
