The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved
by a 15 to 5 vote S.1082, a bill that reauthorizes prescription drug user fees,
and includes drug safety language designed to prevent another Vioxx-like drug
from reaching the market. Vioxx has been linked to heart attacks and strokes,
many of them fatal.
“This bill is a step in the right
direction,” said U.S. PIRG Consumer Advocate Paul Brown. “It gives the Food and
Drug Administration more authority and more tools to ensure that our drugs are
safe. It will reduce the number of patients who suffer from severe side effects
and it will save lives.”
Brown added that U.S. PIRG would
like to see the safety provisions strengthened in the House version of the bill,
H.R.1561 the Waxman-Markey “Enhancing Drug Safety and Innovation Act of
2007.”
“The House bill prioritizes patient and consumer
safety,” said Brown. It allows the FDA to impose stronger fines when drug
companies fail to do post-market safety studies and it allows for a moratorium
on direct-to-consumer TV ads for up to three years on new and potentially unsafe
prescription drugs.”
U.S. PIRG
(U.S. Public Interest Research Group)
218 D. St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
