posted
May 11th, 2007 Dear Friends of Health Freedom,
Senate Bill 1082 began as a reauthorization bill for the drug-fee requirements for pharmaceutical companies that were seeking FDA approval of their drug products. It has now been revised so many times it is becoming what is known as a "legislative sausage."
We believe there may be 5-6 other amendments in the works.
And even as we write this, S.1082 is being held in abeyance while a "Manager's Amendment" (technical amendments only) is being made to the bill.
Senator Dick Durbin has also jumped into the act with his proposed amendment to make corrections to existing Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act law. His amendment would not move food functions out of the FDA, leaving supplements to be regulated as drugs.
Events in the Senate on this matter are changing rapidly so it is best to act as if the bill could pass at any time.
The current version of S.1082 warrants strong opposition from all of us for these reasons:
* It would create The "Reagan-Udall Foundation," a side-kick of the FDA and its pharmaceutical-industry partners. Seven of the Foundation's twelve board members would be from the drug industry and the government. This "fatal embrace" partnership - antithetical to supplements - would dominate this new organization. * This Foundation would provide political cover for anti-supplement actions. * Ostensibly intended to accelerate the drug-approval process, the Foundation would increase drug-approval costs and the time involved in obtaining approval. * The real risk here is one that parallels the ephedra legal case that Washington attorney Jonathan Emord and his clients have been fighting. Under current law, foods are presumed to be safe and there is no need to prove their efficacy (unlike drugs). The risk here is that the supposedly "independent" (but most likely biased) Foundation will consider and assess risky certain dietary supplements on a case-by-case basis that will then lead to their removal from the marketplace by the FDA. The Foundation, and the presumptions behind it, create a slippery slope and an environment for this to happen.
This is quite dangerous.
Let's kill this bill in its cradle.
We urge everyone to immediately contact their Senators asking them to sponsor an amendment to eliminate any reference, direct or indirect, to "food" or "food ingredients."
HealthKeepers Alliance
Posts: 116 | From Plano, Texas, USA | Registered: May 2004
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
sue, did you post this also in ACTIVISM? if not, please do since we have more folks visiting and taking ACTION due to issues posted there!
thanks for updates.
it was harder to read since the paragraphs didn't have DOUBLE BLANK SPACING between them for our neuro lyme brains .... fyi. could you edit and break them up more please!
if i'm asked to participate and have something like you posted, I DO NOT PARTICIPATE since i can't comprehend/read it.
but if you break things up, i'll jump in to help. fyi only; others are like that too here on board.
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