In continuing coverage, Medscape reports that the FDA’s proposal for “safe-use” medications is causing “alarm” for “the American Medical Association (AMA) and other medical societies, which see the beginnings of an end-run around physician authority.” The FDA has identified conditions for drugs qualifying for “safe use” that might even require “an initial visit to a clinician for a prescription but allow more automatic refills.” Sandra Fryhofer, MD, chair-elect of the AMA Council on Science and Public Health, is quoted saying that safe-use would “undermine the relationship that a patient has with his or her physician.” Endocrine Society President Janet Hall, MD, said that the FDA “should exclude diabetes drugs from a new safe-use category.” Meanwhile, “pharmacist groups lined up behind the proposal includ[ing] the American Pharmacists Association (APA), the National Community Pharmacists Association, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.”
From the American Association for Justice press release.
