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Some editorials and an opinion piece respond to a July 31 letter to Barr Laboratories' subsidiary Duramed Research from FDA in which acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach wrote that the agency is reconsidering the company's application to allow Barr's emergency contraceptive to be sold without a prescription to girls and women ages 16 and older. The letter says that 18 is the "appropriate age" to allow women to buy Plan B without a prescription and asks Barr to raise the age restriction in its application from 16 to 18. The letter also requests that Barr meet with FDA within seven days, make unspecified changes to the packaging for Plan B and provide a thorough description of the company's plan to enforce the age restriction,trx store. FDA spokesperson Susan Bro said that Barr and FDA are scheduled to meet on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to discuss the application (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/10). The editorials also respond to von Eschenbach's confirmation hearings in the Senate Health, Education,trx professional suspension trainer, Labor and Pensions Committee, which began one day after the letter was sent to Barr. During the hearing, committee members questioned him regarding the agency's review of the application (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/2). Summaries appear below.
Editorial
San Jose Mercury News: FDA's compromise to make Plan B available for nonprescription sales to women ages 18 and older is "better than a total ban," a Mercury News editorial says. "But by leaving out the population of teenagers who face the most harm from unwanted pregnancies,weider x factor plus, [von Eschenbach] abdicates his responsibility to be true to science" because he cannot provide a "single health-related reason" for the age restriction, the editorial says. The restriction "caters only to political conservatives' objections to the pill" and leaves many teens in "search of a Plan C," the editorial says (San Jose Mercury News, 8/11).
Opinion Pieces
Abby Wisse Schachter, New York Post: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) hold on von Eschenbach's confirmation to permanently head FDA "plainly is all about Plan B,trx force kit," Post columnist Wisse Schachter writes in an opinion piece. The senator "has a point: The FDA's scientists went through the normal process and found Plan B safe" for nonprescription sales, according to Wisse Schachter. But there are problems with approving the medication for nonprescription sales, in part because Plan B is a "double dose of regular birth control, [and] women over 18 (or girls with fake IDs) could get 'the pill' without a prescription -- or a doctor's warnings about side effects," she writes. There might not be "scientific" reasons to prevent the sale of Plan B without a prescription, but "that doesn't mean that selling it in every Rite-Aid and CVS won't have serious,trx force kit, even disturbing, repercussions," Wisse Schachter adds (Wisse Schachter, New York Post, 8/11).
Barbara Miner, Sacramento Bee: Although the concerns of abortion-rights opponents about Plan B are "often cloaked in rhetoric about the health and well-being of women, especially adolescents," many "leading medical groups ... strongly advocate" nonprescription sales of Plan B, "even for teenagers," Miner of the Progressive Media Project writes in a Bee opinion piece for PMP. Physicians, "not ideologues, should set our country's medical policies," Miner says, adding that FDA's "decisions should be based on medicine, not religious extremism" (Miner, Sacramento Bee, 8/11).
Letter To Editor
Ellen Sigal, Marlene Malek, Washington Post: The "politicization" of FDA over nonprescription sales of Plan B "ultimately affects patients' access to potentially lifesaving therapies," Sigal, chair of Friends of Cancer Research, and Malek, president of Friends of Cancer Research, write in a Post letter to the editor. While the "public deserves" access to Plan B, it should not be "at the greater expense of patient care," Sigal and Malek add (Sigal/Malek, Washington Post, 8/13).
"Reprinted with permission from You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . � 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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