Iowa PIRG: Victory! We Prevailed Over Big Pharma
By Meshawn Ayala, Iowa PIRG Citizen Outreach Director
Thanks to your activism a strong prescription drug safety bill passed
the U.S. House and the Senate is poised to pass the same bill.
This is the strongest drug safety bill to pass Congress
in decades. It includes all of our safety priorities including our top
priority which requires drug companies to make public the results of
all of the safety studies they do – good or bad – on the internet so
that doctors and patients know the risk associated with a drug.
However, the Bush administration still must sign the drug safety bill.
You
can help make sure that the president doesn't capitulate to the wishes
of Big Pharma by refusing to sign the bill. Join me in telling
President Bush to sign the drug safety bill.
To take action, click on the link below or paste it into your browser:
https://www.uspirg.org/action/health-care/strong-bill?id4=ES
Then help spread the word by forwarding this message to your family and friends!
Background
The drugs in your medicine cabinet will soon be safer because Congress passed strong drugs safety legislation.
The
House and Senate hammered out an agreement on a final drug safety bill
earlier this week and the House passed it on Wednesday. The Senate will
pass the identical bill, but the President, who has sided with
the pharmaceutical industry and their goal of weak drug safety reforms,
still must sign the bill.
The pharmaceutical industry has
opposed many of the safety reforms in the bill, but in the end there
were too many headlines about dangerous drugs and Congress had to act.
We're glad they did.
Our top drug safety priority passed. Drug
makers must release the results of their safety studies on-line. No
more hiding unflattering or dangerous results. This will help patients
and doctors figure out if the drug's risk is worth its benefits.
The
bill also authorizes the FDA to issues fines of up to $10 million for
drug makers who fail to complete follow-up drug safety studies. Drug
makers used to routinely ignore follow-up studies. The threat of this
stiff fine should get their attention.
The bill includes other
good safety provisions such as strengthening conflicts-of-interest
rules at the FDA and increasing by $225 million the budget for
follow-up drug safety studies. These studies are extremely important
for people taking drugs for years at a time to control chronic
conditions.
Together we can make sure this legislation is signed
into law. Join me in telling President Bush to sign the strong drugs
safety legislation passed by Congress.
To take action, click on the link below or paste it into your browser:
https://www.uspirg.org/action/health-care/strong-bill?id4=ES
Sincerely,
Meshawn Ayala
Iowa PIRG Citizen Outreach Director
MeshawnA@iowapirg.org
http://www.IowaPIRG.org
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