Released on: April 29, 2008, 10:47 am

Press Release Author: Deborah Danuser

Industry: Government

Press Release Summary: Consumer safety group calls for FDA to have foreign
inspectors and criminal investigators armed with the same authority as their
State-side colleagues.

Press Release Body: WASHINGTON, DC (April 29, 2008) - The Partnership for Safe
Medicines, a group of organizations and individuals dedicated to protect consumers
from counterfeit medicines, issued the following statement regarding today\'s hearing
on the examination of the events leading up to the distribution of contaminated
heparin and Chinese plant inspections held by the House Committee on Energy and
Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

"The Partnership for Safe Medicines applauds the Subcommittee for recognizing the
importance and urgency of eliminating contaminated drugs. Unfortunately, this recent
case of heparin contamination is just one example of the increasingly global problem
of counterfeit drugs sold to an unsuspecting public.

"Today's hearing is a step in the right direction. It is important to better
understand what went wrong and what solutions are necessary to ensure the safety of
our prescription medicines. But we can't stop there. The FDA needs to open
permanent field offices in key exporting countries and it must staff those offices
with inspectors and criminal investigators armed with the same authority as their
State-side colleagues. The FDA needs to be granted the authority to enter and
inspect foreign manufacturing facilities without previous notice.

"While we reflect on the events leading up to this tragedy, the Partnership
encourages everyone to learn how they can take steps to protect themselves from
contraband and potentially counterfeit medicines-because counterfeit drugs are
unsafe at any cost."

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About the Partnerships for Safe Medicines
The Partnership for Safe Medicines is a group of organizations and individuals that
have policies, procedures, or programs to protect consumers from counterfeit or
contraband medicines. For more information, please visit
http://www.safemedicines.org.

Web Site: http://www.safemedicines.org

Contact Details: Deborah Danuser
Deborah@JonesPA.com
202-742-5256