Big Pharma and Big Vet Med weigh in with the FDA — how about you?
By Christie Keith
January 4, 2010
We know what the drug companies think, and the health care trade organizations, including the AVMA, think. But what do the majority of Americans think about the FDA’s proposed new early alert reporting system for pet food and veterinary drug recalls?
Impossible to say, as only five of us have commented so far, at least, electronically.
If you’re interested in what Pfizer has to say, you can read it here. Also, the American Society of Health System Pharmacists and the Advanced Medical Technology Association.
Then go add your comments. This is the system we all wanted so badly during the 2007 pet food recall. The rolling ketamine recall that’s going on right now is demonstrating the exact same broken process all over again. We have to do better.
Tell the FDA what you think. Review the document here — give your feedback electronically here.
Thank you for the reminder! I got distracted when I was halfway through the document awhile back, and never made it back. Now I hope my comment gets through … what a clunky system.
Comment by Eucritta — January 4, 2010 @ 6:03 pm
Several people who already commented,aren’t showing up. maybe a backup registered snail mail to be sure they get it.
Comment by Leslie K — January 4, 2010 @ 6:30 pm
Thanks for giving us a link and encouraging us to have a say. I remember during the Diamond foods recall, people kept saying “somebody should do something!”.
Well, now somebody is doing something and we need to interact with the process.
I am going to review the new submissions process and make a statement, and I will see if VIN (the Veterinary Information Network) will also take part.
Comment by Dr. Tony Johnson — January 5, 2010 @ 7:07 am
I hope lots of pet owners comment too! This did get put out right at the holidays so hopefully more people will learn about this before the end of the month. Its kind of interesting because on other dockets related to pet food such as the Reportable Food Registry, they gave them months to respond but yet for some reason this is being given only 30 days for responses.
I also read the comments already submitted to the docket and one of the comments that stood out for me was from AVMA. They encouraged FDA to make sure people identify themselves in order to discourage false reports. I find that comment kind of intriguing. If they had read the form, it shows that the person submitting the report has to give their name, address, phone number, etc so why they felt it was necessary to specify that twice in their comment was kind of interesting to me. Do they really feel they will receive so many false reports? I guess to me, out of all the things they could comment on in relation to this docket, one of their major concerns was obtaining and storing information from people who submit a report in order to catch false reports….I guess I just find it hard to believe that the majority of people using this form/new system would be someone intentionally filing a false report? There is always a possibility that a pet owner could file a report and later on, it be found that the food wasnt the cause of the problem but I dont classify that as a “false” report.
Comment by Sandi K — January 11, 2010 @ 12:49 pm