By SUZIE JAWOROWSKI
Guest Columnist
Last November, Fishers police issued a warning about counterfeit pills they thought were linked to at least three deaths and several overdoses in the city. The fake pills seemed like legitimate prescription pills, but they actually contained fentanyl.
The reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) is coming up in legislation this year, and I hope Congress reauthorizes PDUFA with no changes. Prescription drug tampering can happen anywhere, even Hamilton County.
It is the role of government to protect citizens in ways we cannot do for ourselves. The PDUFA protects us from drugs that can be laced with toxins, and it speeds up the path for new, lifesaving drugs to safely come to market. Without the PDUFA and the importation of medicine from Canada, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would not have oversight on many drugs that our citizens would receive. If PDUFA is not reauthorized, there would be millions of drugs pouring into our communities that have not been given the same oversight as American-made drugs, and that is not right. We need total confidence that all drugs in the country have passed the FDA safety standards.
The U.S. is known worldwide for our medical advances on drugs and the capability to produce drugs. With PDUFA, we need to have FDA oversight on all the drugs that our citizens take. We should not have to worry about what is in our medicine, especially since there are a lot of imported drugs that have been laced with toxins like fentanyl. We deserve to know that the drugs entering our community have followed the regulations and oversight from the FDA.
As a mother and grandmother, I hope this legislation will stay in place to keep our prescription drugs safe.