By John A. Gilbert, Jr. – After more than four months without any substantive registrant decisions, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) published 11 administrative decisions within two days last week. Among these are two related cases involving allegations that a pharmacist failed to verify a prescriber DEA …
By Karla L. Palmer - Earlier this week, the GAO released the Testimony of Marcia Crosse, Director, Health Care, before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. The statement, titled, “Controlled Substances: DEA Needs to Better Manage its Quota Process and Improve Coordination with FDA,” provides a …
By John A. Gilbert – On March 16th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by voice vote H.R. 639, the Improving Regulatory Transparency for New Medical Therapies Act, which would amend the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) …
By Karla L. Palmer – On March 4, 2015, the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) released a lengthy and detailed report, titled “Better Management of the Quota Process for Controlled Substances Needed; Coordination between DEA and FDA Should Be Improved,” addressing controlled substance shortages potentially resulting …
By Karla L. Palmer – A very busy House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health (chaired by Joe Pitts (R-PA)) held a hearing earlier this week to review six bi-partisan bills intended to benefit veterans, address the prescription drug abuse crisis, secure access to medical care, and improve certain …
By Karla L. Palmer – The Senate passed a bill last Thursday, December 11, 2014, that will prohibit the use of certain designer anabolic steroids. H.R. 4771, titled the Designer Anabolic Steroid Control Act (“DASCA”), adds 25 specific over-the-counter designer substances to the category of "anabolic …
By Karla L. Palmer – Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced legislation late last week that would allow a pharmacist to dispense a controlled substance prescription for a patient and deliver the drug to a practitioner for administration in the doctor’s office. S. …
By Karla L. Palmer – Late last week, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), both members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, announced the introduction of S. 2862, the “Regulatory Transparency, Patient Access, and Effective Drug Enforcement Act.” The legislation …
By Larry K. Houck & Andrew J. Hull – Last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) published its final rule implementing the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 (“Disposal Act”). 79 Fed. Reg. 53,520 (Sept. 9, 2014). A post appeared here when DEA issued …
An article set to be published in the Albany Law Review in Spring 2015, titled “Drug Diversion Administrative Revocation and Application Hearings for Medical and Pharmacy Practitioners: A Primer for Navigating Murky, Drug-Infested Waters,” explores the increasingly complex and nuanced practice of administrative law before …
By Karla L. Palmer – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) published last Friday a Final Rule rescheduling hydrocodone combination products (“HCPs”) from Schedule III to Schedule II. We posted about the proposed rescheduling here (NPRM published February 27, 2014). There was little doubt that DEA …
By Kurt R. Karst – We thought Eisai Inc.’s (“Eisai”) beef with FDA over New Chemical Entity (“NCE”) exclusivity might resurface at some point . . . and now it has. Last Friday, Eisai filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of …
By John A. Gilbert, Jr. & Larry K. Houck – As expected, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) published its final rule in the Federal Register today (79 Fed. Reg. 37,623 (July 2, 2014) placing tramadol (2-[(dimethylamino)methyl]-1-(3-methoxyphenyl)cyclohexanol) into schedule IV of the federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). …
By James C. Shehan & Karla L. Palmer – In a curious posting on Friday, June 20, 2014, FDA with little fanfare set forth its latest position on medical marijuana. Amounting to little more than a statement of general support of scientific research on medical marijuana …
By Larry K. Houck – Deputy Assistant Administrator Joseph Rannazzisi, Office of Diversion Control, Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), told the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on April 29, 2014 that his agency “has steadily increased the frequency of compliance inspections” …
