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Date published: 11/15/2012
AP Health Writer
WASHINGTON
--Republican lawmakers challenged the country's top medical regulator Wednesday to explain why her agency did not take action sooner against the specialty pharmacy at the center of a deadly meningitis outbreak.Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has convened the first hearing to examine the outbreak that has sickened about 440 people and caused 32 deaths across the U.S. The illness has been tied to the New England Compounding Center, which distributed pain steroids that later tested positive for contamination.
Health officials say as many as 14,000 people received the steroid shots, mostly for back pain.
Republicans lawmakers, who make up the majority of the House, focused on NECC's history of troubles, questioning why regulators at the FDA and the Massachusetts board of pharmacy did not take action against the pharmacy years earlier.
"After a tragedy like this, the first question we all ask is: Could this have been prevented?" asked Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. "After an examination of the documents provided by the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy and the FDA--the answer here appears to be yes."
A timeline assembled by the Republican staff shows that the FDA inspected NECC three times since 2002 for sterility issues. The Massachusetts board of pharmacy investigated at least 12 separate complaints involving the pharmacy, dating back to its founding.
"I was stunned and angered to learn that an inspection of the NECC by the FDA and the Mass Board over 10 years ago identified contamination in the very same drug at issue in the current outbreak," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who chairs the Energy and Commerce committee.
Hamburg told lawmakers that the problems uncovered in inspections were "very serious," but that the agency was obligated to defer to Massachusetts authorities, who have more direct oversight over pharmacies.
"The challenge we have today is that there is a patchwork of legal authorities that oversee the action we can take," said Hamburg, who was nominated to head the FDA by President Obama in 2009.
In her prepared testimony, Hamburg said Congress should draft new laws and provide more funding to police large specialty pharmacies, which have long operated in an area between state and federal law.