President signs bill to regulate medications
WASHINGTON – Compounding pharmacies that custom-mix medications in bulk are expected to come under more federal oversight under a bill signed into law Wednesday by President Barack Obama.
Last year, a meningitis outbreak from contaminated steroid pain injections killed 64 people and sickened more than 750 across the country.
The sickness was traced to a now-closed pharmacy in Framingham, Mass., the New England Compounding Center, where inspectors found unsterile conditions. The company had shipped more than 17,600 doses of the implicated injection to 23 states.
The law attempts to sort out the legal gray area that allowed the Massachusetts pharmacy and similar operations to skirt both state and federal regulations.
Under the new law, large-volume compounding pharmacies can register with the FDA and submit to federal inspections and quality standards much like drug manufacturers.
Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado helped write the new law.
Harsh sentences draw criticism in Egypt
CAIRO – Egyptian authorities on Wednesday took a heavy hand against both Islamist and secular opponents, handing down heavy prison sentences to a group of female supporters of the ousted Islamist president – including teenagers as young as 15 – and ordering the detention of two dozen secular activists, all for participating in protests.
The moves mark what critics say is a bolder determination by Egypt’s military-backed government to silence dissent, continuing a crackdown on Islamists since the military’s July 3 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, while suppressing secular activists who supported his removal but also accuse the new leadership of restoring a system as autocratic as Morsi’s toppled predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
Associated Press
