Judge orders FDA to revisit decision not to ban some antibiotics in animal feed
Source: Wash. Post
A federal court has ordered the Food and Drug Administration to revisit its decision not to ban the use of certain antibiotics in animal feed and criticized the agency for relying on industry to voluntarily limit the use of these drugs.
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In March, in a decision tied to the same case, the court ordered the FDA to follow through on a proposal it made decades ago that would have banned the use of penicillin and two forms of tetracycline in animal feed.
The back-to-back rulings mark a victory for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the other health and consumer advocacy groups that sued the government.
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In this week’s ruling, Judge Theodore H. Katz said that the agency has recognized for more than three decades that the use of some antibiotics poses health risks for humans but that it has done “shockingly little” about it.
When the FDA rejected the two citizen petitions — filed in 1999 and 2005 — it failed to weigh scientific evidence as required by law, Katz wrote. Instead, the agency considered only the time and cost it would take to withdraw the drug approvals and the fact that it was pursuing alternative regulatory proposals.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/judge-orders-fda-to-revisit-decision-not-to-ban-some-antibiotics-in-animal-feed/2012/06/05/gJQANjBxGV_story.html?wprss=rss_politics
The judge is Theodore H. Katz, a George H.W. Bush nominee.
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[/IMG]Thanks for sharing.
