From nuts to drugs

Executive Summary

When the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee turns its attention from salmonella-contaminated peanuts and inadequacies in the FDA system for monitoring food safety, CDER and Ranbaxy executives could be the next to feel the heat. Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., already has an ongoing investigation into why FDA failed to remove Ranbaxy products from the market after it found GMP violations at a company plant in India in 2006 (1"The Pink Sheet," July 28, 2008, p. 27). A public review of findings from that inquiry would provide further impetus for action on the FDA Globalization Act introduced by Committee Chairman Emeritus John Dingell, D-Mich., with Stupak and Health Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone, D-N.J. Action is needed "sooner rather than later to put the agency back on track in protecting the public from unsafe food and drugs," Stupak said Feb. 12 following a recall of all products made at the Peanut Corporation of America's Plainview, Tex., plant since its opening in 2005