National Association Of Chain Drug Stores Pushing For Separate Food, Drug Regulations

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The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has begun lobbying House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders' staff in opposition to stricter track-and-trace rules in the wake of the recent salmonella outbreak, CongressDaily reports. Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) recently released a revised version of the do drugs portion of an FDA overhaul billhook on which he is working that would pass the agency more say-so to oversee food and drug products. According to CongressDaily, when Dingell's circular was low released in April, Reps. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah) proposed adding a track-and-trace element -- a so-called "bloodline requirement" -- to the bill. Committee staff members have indicated that they will not add a pedigree prerequisite unless everyone involved throne reach a consensus.

Although pharmaceutical distributors are "broadly speaking pleased" with the Buyer/Matheson proposal, and the trade name and generic drug industries are "looking at for changes," representatives of the chemist's shop industry "possess dug in their heels against it," according to CongressDaily. Lobbyists for the pharmacy industry say the Buyer/Matheson proposition does not account for the cost and complexity of track-and-trace technology. According to a June study by NACDS and the National Community Pharmacists Association, it could cost each pharmacy as much as $110,000 in the first class to implement new track-and-trace technology. Paul Kelly, frailty president of government affairs for NACDS, added that the do drugs industry -- unlike the food manufacture -- already has strong regulations and licensing that ensure the products ar safer. NACDS is lobbying for stronger wholesale distributor licensing standards and a requirement that FDA administer a enfranchisement program for manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies.

Kelly aforementioned, "All this talk about tracking and tracing food, we thought it was time to remind our friends that 'Hey, they're not the same'" (Edney, CongressDaily, 8/7).


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