ASCRS Urges Exemption for Office Use in Drug Compounding Legislation

This week, ASCRS sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Health, 

Education

, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) regarding S. 959, the Pharmaceutical Compounding Quality and Accountability Act, requesting that the bill be amended to exempt compounded biologics and other Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marketed drugs so that ophthalmologists have access to drugs that may be administered in their offices without specific patient prescriptions. The bill was introduced to address concerns over safety at compounding pharmacies in the wake of the deadly 

meningitis

 outbreak last fall. The bill would consolidate oversight of these pharmacies under the FDA and tighten access to compounded drugs to the point that physicians would not be permitted to stock compounded drugs in the office for emergent cases. S. 959 passed the Senate HELP committee without this exemption. ASCRS is working in conjunction with the American Academy of Ophthalmology to ensure the final version of the bill includes office use exemptions.

quoted from here