deal for cheaper, safer drugs

[sarah]

Nice idea but congress will probably veto it, after all they don't understand why there should be any oversight about anything! I certainly don't like the idea that so many drugs are made or partially made in China:

August 17, 2011
A Deal to Get Cheaper and Safer Drugs

Federal regulators and the generic drug industry are putting the final touches on an agreement that would help speed the approval of generic drugs in this country and increase inspections at foreign plants that export generic drugs and drug ingredients to the United States.
The agreement calls for generic drug manufacturers to collectively pay $299 million in annual fees (adjusted for inflation in succeeding years) under a program that would have to be approved by Congress. The fees would allow the Food and Drug Administration to hire more reviewers to speed up the processing of applications to market new generics and reduce a large current backlog. That would help lower health care costs by giving patients and doctors quicker access to inexpensive generics.
The money would also allow the F.D.A. to inspect foreign manufacturing plants that produce generic drugs or the ingredients for them every two years, the same rate at which American plants are inspected. At the current pace, government investigators estimated three years ago that it would take more than 13 years to inspect all foreign plants that export drugs or drug ingredients to this country, whether for brand-name or generic use. Many foreign plants have never been inspected.
Lawmakers ought to welcome this carefully negotiated agreement and quickly approve the fee legislation when it is introduced next year. It would lower consumer costs and increase consumer safety — and industry would rightly foot much of the bill.