AmerisourceBergen (ABC), which is one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical wholesalers, faces a fresh round of setbacks with its compounding business as its licenses were suspended by officials in Virginia and Alabama over health and safety concerns.
The suspensions follow the cancellation of a compounding license for its Pharmedium Services unit earlier this year by California authorities after an inspection of a facility in Texas found more than a dozen violations of federal law. Virginia officials cited a cease-and-desist order in an Aug. 20 notice as one reason for the suspension, which affects three different Pharmedium facilities.
The Alabama board, meanwhile, suspended a Pharmedium license last May, cited a troubling inspection report filed by the Food and Drug Administration last January over problems at a facility in Mississippi (scroll down). Separately, still another FDA inspection report was subsequently filed this past April over quality issues at an Illinois facility. A hearing in Alabama is scheduled for October.
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The report of the different compound pharmacies, and what is found specifically about one pharmacy to another, would be a major source of information to the citizens who use compound pharmacies throughout the country.
I recognize that this would be a major undertaking; yet I am of the opinion that we have the right to be informed about each of the compound pharmacies. The investigations are long overdue; I have a significant problem with the established committees that are responsible for their respective investigations’ outcomes, and the publication of their findings, which are not revealed. This lack of oversight is unacceptable, irresponsible and until those pharmacies, including any cover-up from the committees’ findings that are not allowed to be accessible to everyone, is an extremely serious situation that deserves consequences especially, for all involved with keeping their findings secret from the public.