“FDA” on The Daily Caller

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) — The widening quality problems at health giant Johnson & Johnson have former regulators and analysts mystified, as yet another J&J business — at least the seventh — has come under scrutiny. (more)

SILVER SPRING, Md., Dec. 30, 2011 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Prevnar 13, a pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine, was approved today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people ages 50 years and older to prevent pneumonia and invasive disease caused by the bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae. (more)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Federal inspectors say the contract manufacturer for Johnson & Johnson’s cancer drug Doxil hasn’t been maintaining equipment or promptly investigating defective product batches and other serious problems at its Bedford, Ohio, factory. (more)

On Thursday President Barack Obama defended his administration’s 11th-hour decision to keep in place an age restriction on the sale of the “morning after” birth control pill. (more)

Cigar smokers are mad as hell, and they aren’t going to take it anymore. Faced with an unprecedented assault on their guilty pleasure from President Barack Obama’s Food and Drug Administration, aficionados and industry insiders told The Daily Caller that they’re picking up their torch lighters and revolting. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government delivered a blow to some desperate patients Friday as it ruled the blockbuster drug Avastin should no longer be used to treat advanced breast cancer. (more)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The first combination pill for the millions of people with the dangerous combination of diabetes and high cholesterol won U.S. approval Friday, offering convenience — and savings — to patients taking multiple pills. (more)

New regulations pushed by the Food and Drug Administration could pose a new threat to cigar manufacturers and retailers. And some of them are banding together to push back. (more)

The Food and Drug Administration called on Congress Tuesday to make the laws that govern the global prescription drug economy stronger. (more)

It is no secret that the government wants to change how we live. Nanny-state officials want people to exercise more, stop drinking soda and stop using tobacco. But few people are familiar with an Obama administration program that gives grants to activist organizations that support unpopular nanny-state laws. (more)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has insisted for years that its notorious body-scanners at the nation’s airports are “safe for all passengers, including children, pregnant women, and individuals with medical implants.” (more)

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has introduced one of the most important pieces of health care legislation of this Congress: the Preserving Access to Targeted, Individualized, and Effective New Treatments and Services (PATIENTS) Act of 2011, which would bar the federal government from using “comparative effectiveness research” — a tool used by socialized health care systems to dictate treatment based on cost rather than effectiveness. Comparative effectiveness research gives bureaucrats the excuse they need to deny coverage of a health care treatment or micromanage the practice of medicine. (more)

A government agency that wants to do the right thing. A “black market” that is relentless and thumbs its nose at law enforcement. And willing buyers of contraband goods. Such is the situation in Canada today, and could be the situation in the United States in the near future. (more)

In November of last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposed a seemingly subtle change to its policy on marijuana. Citing recommendations from the assistant secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency outlined its plan to reschedule pills containing organic dronabinol from schedule I to schedule III. (more)

If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny. The brain trust at the Consumers Union doesn’t seem to be able to see the consequences of their actions. (more)

The National Institutes of Health recently announced that it would be engaging in a billion-dollar effort to encourage the development of new pharmaceutical therapies. The New York Times headline for this story sounded innocuous: “Federal Research Center Will Help Develop Medicines.” But not everyone is so sanguine about this effort. Fox News, for example, re-ran the Times story under the header: “Obama Creating Billion Dollar Gov’t-Run Drug Company.” (more)

You’re running your Saturday errands: dry cleaners, post office, oil change, etc. At the grocery store you work your way down the list: milk, eggs, broccoli . . . Where’s the bread? You don’t want to buy that brown stuff with all those seeds and twigs; you want good old-fashioned, mushy, best-thing-since-sliced white bread. But it’s nowhere to be found. Upon further investigation, you’re informed that it’s been banned by the government due to the potential harm it can do to diabetics and the gluten-intolerant, and because refined white grains may contribute to obesity. Never mind that you don’t fall into those categories, you’ve been prohibited from making the choice for yourself, for the greater good. (more)

Critics of the Republicans who rode the so-called Tea Party wave into office often argue that the new congressmen don’t offer specifics on one of their key goals — reducing the size of government. But those who have made concrete recommendations are demonized for wanting to cut or privatize entitlement spending. (more)

1.) Obama writes editorial against regulatory excess, can name only one excessive regulation — Overly schoolmarmish regulations have to go, Pres. Obama writes in an op-ed in the morning’s Wall Street Journal. In it, Obama pays lip service to America’s semi-free market system as the source of “dazzling ideas and path-breaking products” and “the greatest force for prosperity the world has ever known.” The op-ed is a curtain-raiser for this afternoon, when Obama will sign an executive order that “requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth,” as well as “a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.” But do not get your hopes too high: Apparently, the only regulatory excessiveness that Obama could think of was artificial sweetener: “The FDA has long considered saccharin, the artificial sweetener, safe for people to consume. Yet for years, the EPA made companies treat saccharin like other dangerous chemicals. Well, if it goes in your coffee, it is not hazardous waste. The EPA wisely eliminated this rule last month.” Meanwhile, a spox for Rep. Eric Cantor wishes Obama had released this executive order in 2009, when House Republicans proposed it first. (more)

President Obama moved Tuesday to undercut criticism by conservatives that he will unilaterally impose his agenda through regulation, announcing an executive order making economic growth a required criteria for federal rule-making. (more)