Earlier this week, Congress passed the Drug Quality and Security Act. The threat to BHRT therapies has been largely defeated.
Earlier this week, Congress passed the Drug Quality and Security Act, clarifying the role of the FDA in regulating drug compounding. Thanks to the efforts of you and the tens of thousands of other patients and providers who use or prescribe bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), the threat to the availability of these important compounded medications has been largely defeated.
The legislation that passed does not contain the provisions that would have allowed the FDA and the drug companies to easily target BHRT therapies such as those that contain estriol, a widely used component in compounded medications. Other provisions that would have made a doctor or nurse practitioner document a patient’s need for compounded BHRT as opposed to drug company medications – an unprecedented intrusion by the FDA into the practice of medicine — were not included.
So despite all these threats to the medications you depend on, Congress did the sensible thing and said “no” to these extreme proposals.
But this positive outcome would not have happened without the emails and phone calls that you and others made to your Senators and Congressmen. In our numerous visits to Capitol Hill offices, we kept hearing that Senators, Congressmen and their staffs heard from you. You made a difference, you were listened to, and you should be proud of that fact.
Nevertheless, the fight to protect your access to compounded BHRT is not over. FDA must still be watched, and the drug companies still want to eliminate competition for their one-size-fits-all hormone products. So we must be ever vigilant.
So while we say “thank you” for helping defeat these proposals, it is likely that additional attempts to restrict your access to BHRT will happen in the future. When and if that happens, we will count on you to help out once again. You stood up for your rights and for the rights of others to get the medications they need, and we know you will be there if your assistance is needed in the future.
Warmly,
Lyn
