Government Regulations Hinder Quality Control and Harm Consumers

The tragic case of the tainted medication produced by New England Compounding Center, which resulted in at least twenty-five deaths and hundreds sickened, highlights a little-recognized danger inherent in government regulation. As David Brown reported:

“[Purchasing pharmaceuticals from compounding pharmacies is] like buying your electricity from a different supplier. It looks like you’re getting the same stuff, but evidently you’re not,” says a physician at one of the seven outpatient treatment centers in Maryland that received methylprednisolone from a contaminated lot from the New England Compounding Center. A pain specialist, he’s been using compounding pharmacies [which produce customized drugs] “for at least five years, closer to 10.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity on the advice of his lawyer.

He’s never really thought of compounding pharmacies as different, less regulated, under-the-radar enterprises.

“From our perspective, they look like any of our other vendors,” he said. “They’re licensed and inspected; they have nice, pretty Web sites and sales teams and inspections. They look no different from Upjohn.”

This doctor operated under the assumption that government regulators assured all product integrity, creating in his mind a false sense of security. If there were no government regulation, how would his thinking have differed? Where would physicians and patients turn for information on medications and drug manufacturers? As Stella Daily Zawistowski explains in “How the FDA Violates rights and Hinders Health”:

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