Dr. Do-Little's Confirmation Hearing

While most Republicans concentrated on his resume, Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday during a confirmation hearing on acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach's nomination to permanently head the agency, questioned him regarding the FDA's review of an application requesting approval for nonprescription sales of Barr Laboratories' emergency contraceptive Plan B, the Washington Post reports.

In a July 31 letter to Barr subsidiary Duramed Research, von Eschenbach wrote that 18 is the "appropriate age" to allow women to buy Plan B without a prescription and asked Barr to raise the age restriction in its application from 16 to 18.

Democrats on the panel "hammered" the nominee on the "timing and substance" of the letter he sent to Duramed, the AP/Forbes reports. "We all know what's going on here," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said, adding, "It's the disregard of science for ideological concerns".

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) questioned why von Eschenbach requested a new age restriction for Barr's application. "Is there new data?" Reed asked, adding, "New analysis? Or have you just decided you don't like the conclusion of your predecessor?"

For full details of the hearing, see here: http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=38876

And 9 women in Washington state on Monday filed complaints with the state Board of Pharmacy alleging that four pharmacies failed to carry or stock EC despite a state regulation that requires them to fill such prescriptions, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The women said they were unable to receive 17 prescriptions for EC at four pharmacies in June and July. According to Steven Saxe, executive director of the state pharmacy board, a three-member panel of the board has 21 days to decide whether to take further action on the complaints or to dismiss them. If action is taken, investigators will have 170 days to issue recommendations for review, after which a panel of three board members will issue formal charges and seek fines or other penalties, the AP/Post-Intelligencer reports.