Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Should Sebelius have stopped Plan B?

It's been a long road for a emergency contraceptive pill called Plan B. Its maker, a general manufacturer Teva, has been perplexing to get a drug available over-the-counter for buyers of all ages for years. It was stopped by a FDA underneath a Bush administration, in a preference which prompted resignations and a federal justice case.

The Obama administration department FDA deliberate a similar application and was poised to have an opposite decision. A scientific panel and a FDA's commissioner had determined which a drug would be safe for women and girls of all ages to purchase and use without a doctor's prescription. But last week, Sebelius overruled a agency's last decision, arguing which there was not competent research showing which a youngest girls who might need it - girls as young as 11 -- would be able to read and understand a remedy labels. As a result, Plan B will remain prescription-only for girls underneath 17, and those 17 and older will have to show ID to a pharmacist to buy it. Several commentators have described a move as a first time an HHS secretary has overruled a FDA in this way.

Sebelius denied a judgement was politically motivated, but critics have said it was. Was a secretary right to intervene?


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