releases: http://franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2611
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2611 | Sen. Franken?s Bipartisan Bill to Keep Medicine Safe for Minnesotans Clears Critical Hurdle Toward Becoming Law | 2013-11-12 | 2013 | 2013-11 | Democrat | House | MN | Al Franken | F000457 | franken.senate.gov | legacy | Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn.) bipartisan legislation to help prevent deaths related to contaminated medications cleared a key hurdle on its way to becoming law. The bill passed a key procedural vote necessary to move the bill to the Senate floor for debate and a final vote. In September, the House passed this bipartisan legislation. Last year, 64 Americans died and hundreds more were infected after a Massachusetts drug compounding facility distributed a steroid contaminated with a fungus that causes meningitis to health care facilities in 20 states, including Minnesota. The legislation seeks to help prevent similar outbreaks. In July, Sen. Franken and a bipartisan group of his Senate Health Committee colleagues introduced legislation to help ensure the safety of drug compounding, which includes the making, mixing, diluting, or combining of drugs for individual patients. In September, Senate Health Committee leaders and House health policy leaders reached an agreement on compromise legislation, which was passed by the House. The bill would clarify the oversight responsibilities of the Food and Drug Administration over large-volume sterile facilities-called outsourcing facilities-and by holding these facilities to high quality standards. "Over the past year, I've worked hard to develop a bipartisan proposal to help ensure that patients and providers in Minnesota can trust that their medicine is safe," said Sen. Franken "This bill will provide protections for Minnesotans who rely on compounded medicine. I'm hopeful that the Senate can pass this bipartisan bill and President Obama will sign it into law." Last year's meningitis outbreak alerted the nation that providers and patients need sources of safe compounded drugs. Following the outbreak, a bipartisan group of Senate Health Committee colleagues-led by Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Sen. Franken, and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)-developed legislation to help ensure that quality compounded drugs are available to patients who need them. Sen. Franken's legislation would also improve patient safety by replacing today's patchwork of state product tracing laws with a strong, uniform standard that would ultimately result in electronic, interoperable unit level product tracing for the entire country. The last comprehensive effort to establish safeguards for the drug distribution supply chain was twenty-five years ago. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |