FDA And Congress Activities In Brief

US Food and Drug Administration director Robert Fish has said that in response to concerns expressed by industry and Congress, the agency will increase the number of foreign inspections in the coming fiscal year, and resources for such foreign inspections, both people and funding, will come out of domestic coverage. Speaking at a recent National Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers meeting, he said the 570 foreign inspections scheduled for the current fiscal year are significantly more than the 300 carried out in fiscal 1994.

- Rather than present a lengthy and complicated health care reform bill to the next Congress, the Administration is likely to offer just a list of goals or ask for incremental reforms, one bill at a time, according to an anonymous White House official. President Clinton is also likely to propose a more modest plan, rather than risk the loss of some liberal Democrats to win the support of a few Republicans. Other officials said there will be less focus on health care reform next year, and that while it will be a major goal, it will not be an exclusive one.

- FDA officials have been meeting with representatives of the American Pharmaceutical Association, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Association of Retail Druggists and the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists, with the aim of progressing medicine guide proposals, and establishing what type of patient information on prescription drugs is currently available and what is still needed. The agency has said it aims to release regulations on this sometime in 1995.