For more than two and a half years, the FDA has stalled at approving the OTC sale of the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B even though it had been overwhelmingly recommended by an expert panel drawn up by........ the FDA.
Yet the day before a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday for acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, he unexpectedly announced that the agency is reviving the stalled effort to make Plan B available without a prescription.
Just a coincidence?
Washington Sen. Patty Murray is right to be skeptical.
In July 2005, she had accepted the Bush administration’s written assurance that a decision on Plan B would be made soon. It wasn’t. Now critics say the sudden willingness to be reasonable has one objective: to get von Eschenbach confirmed.
In the years between 1994 and 2004, the FDA approved OTC sale of 67 medications.
Plan B is the only one denied approval after an expert panel had recommended it.
Murray should continue to use her senatorial prerogative to hold up von Eschenbach’s confirmation until Plan B is approved.
The FDA is supposed to abide by scientific criteria in its regulatory decision-making.
If von Eschenbach is incapable of that, he has no business heading the agency.
And while Insider is on his soap box could he also refer you to Bitch PhD who nicely takes Barbara Waw-waw to task for not understanding how Plan B works.
Insider votes for the above option re the Tee shirt.
1 comment:
But the point is broader. If Bush bypasses the Senate by parachuting Eschenbach in during the summer recess the whole Murray/Clinton "veto" becomes an irrelevance
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