Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Fungal Meningitis Outbreak: Who's to Blame?

Whose fault was it that several batches of compounded drugs produced by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts led to hundreds of cases of fungal meningitis and 32 deaths in 19 states? Predictably, we’re now at the “blame-game” stage.  According to The Examiner, fingers are being pointed at the compounding pharmacy (for bad manufacturing practices); the Massachusetts state pharmacy board (responsible for oversight of the compounding pharmacy); poor communication between states; the FDA (for not fulfilling its mandate from Congress to “protect the public health”); even Congress itself (for enacting the laws under which the FDA operates).

Hopefully the various players will get beyond the blame game and come up with concrete solutions. This tragedy should be a wake-up call for regulators at all levels. We’ll be watching to see what (if anything) changes in the future.

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