Fda

An adverse reaction to a beauty product might sound like a story line from a bad sitcom, but it happens in real life too. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to know about any products that give you rashes, burns your scalp or turns your skin an unexpected or unintended color. You should report a bad experience even if you weren't following the directions precisely. After all, if you make a mistake, chances are other people may do it too. Many beauty products or cosmetics recommend that consumers test the item in an inconspicuous area before applying it everywhere, which is definitely good advice.

Men now have a new option to treat erectile dysfunction. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the new drug Stendra to treat the illness that causes problems in the sex lives of 30 million men. It is the first erectile dysfunction drug in a decade. And its reacts faster than other drugs on the market meaning men may be able to add spontaneity back into the bedroom. Men take the drug, which increases blood flow to the penis, as needed 30 minutes before engaging in sex. They'll still have to take some precautions like when taking other drugs on the market.

From the Maryland Politics blog: The number two official at the Food and Drug Administration will join the O'Malley administration. Josh Sharfstein, the agency's Principal Deputy Commissioner would lead the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Gov. Martin O'Malley told Sun reporter Hanah Cho that he is "delighted" that he could lure Sharfstein from a high-profile position at the FDA. O'Malley will make a formal announcement during a press conference DHMH in Annapolis Wednesday morning.

Maryland's General Assembly adopted today a ban on arsenic additives in chicken feed, which if signed into law would make the state the first in the nation to take such a step to keep the toxic chemical out of food and the environment. By a vote of 101-31, the House of Delegates gave final approval to the bill , ending a lengthy debate over the issue that had pitted environmentalists and food safety advocates against the state's major poultry industry.  Similar measures had failed to pass since 2009.

Ralph S. Tyler III, Maryland's insurance commissioner and a former Baltimore city solicitor, announced Wednesday he is leaving state government for a federal post as chief counsel at the Food and Drug Administration. "It was not an easy decision, but the opportunity at the FDA is certainly exciting," said Tyler, who said he brought a sharper focus to consumer protection during his tenure as insurance commissioner. "It includes the opportunity to go back to being principally a lawyer, which is how I spent my professional life, and it is what I enjoy."

WASHINGTON - Physicians who want to prescribe anti-anemia drugs for cancer patients will have to register and undergo training or risk losing access to the drugs, under a long-awaited risk-management plan unveiled Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The company also will require physicians to collect signed statements from patients attesting that they have been informed about the dangers of the drugs, which can cause tumors to grow faster and have shortened the lives of some cancer patients.

The Food and Drug Administration is calling on pharmaceutical firms to give more attention to the potential for abuse of new drugs when subjecting them to pre-market testing. The agency this week released a draft of new voluntary guidelines to assist drug makers in figuring out which compounds should be placed under the Controlled Substances Act, which regulates the handling, record-keeping and dispensing of controlled substances. The guidelines urge researchers to look beyond traditional indicators such as whether a compound is addictive to other characteristics that could lead to abuse.

Men now have a new option to treat erectile dysfunction. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the new drug Stendra to treat the illness that causes problems in the sex lives of 30 million men. It is the first erectile dysfunction drug in a decade. And its reacts faster than other drugs on the market meaning men may be able to add spontaneity back into the bedroom. Men take the drug, which increases blood flow to the penis, as needed 30 minutes before engaging in sex. They'll still have to take some precautions like when taking other drugs on the market.

A Jessup seafood processor that had been ordered by the Food and Drug Administration to stop operations because it wasn't complying with federal safety laws will resume normal business Thursday with a new food handling plan. The agency said Congressional Seafood Co. Inc. did not document that fish were refrigerated at correct temperatures, failed to keep fish species separate to avoid cross-contamination and did not keep sanitation records. The company delivers seafood in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Washington.

A SENATE committee was treated last week to one of those rare, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington moments, when a seemingly earnest public servant blows the whistle on a government agency that has lost its way. Shockingly, but somehow not surprisingly, the Food and Drug Administration was described by a long-term employee as so hamstrung by management conflicts and sympathy for the industry it regulates that it cannot perform its mission of protecting the...

State senators are scheduled to take a final vote today on whether to ban the use of arsenic in poultry feed, with proponents arguing it's needed to protect Marylanders and the Chesapeake Bay while Eastern Shore lawmakers contend it's unwarranted meddling with the state's poultry industry. Chicken and turkey producers have long used roxarsone, a veterinary drug containing arsenic, to treat common avian diseases and to plump up their birds. But the practice has raised concerns for human health and the environment.

A host of prescription drugs have been in low supply around the United States for some time, but doctors have been warning about a particularly acute shortage of a set of life-saving cancer drugs. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today that it has taken steps to boost the supply of those cancer drugs -- Doxil, or doxorubicin hydrochloride liposome injection, and methotrexate. On Doxil , the FDA plans to import temporarily a replacement drug called Lipodox to meet patient needs in coming weeks.

I grew up among scientists ambivalent about church. At age 10, I argued my friend out of literal creationism. We decided to make up our own philosophy, the basis of Classical Cynicism. We relabeled Christianity Paulism because Paul mostly wrote the New Testament. Confirmed a Methodist at 13, I thought Jesus was a cool guy. At 14, I argued my grandfather to a stalemate about his newfound faith in Joseph Smith. I felt a dozen witnesses to the golden plates bearing the sacred text of the Mormon faith were shills for a real confidence man. They were offered multiple wives.

Drugs for chronic conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and diabetes would move through the Food and Drug Administration approval process more rapidly under a bipartisan bill Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski will unveil Thursday. The legislation, which will have Republican co-sponsors in the House and Senate, would direct $50 million to increase the number of experimental drugs that enter the FDA approval pipeline. To receive a grant under the program, private companies would have to put up $2 for every $1 spent by taxpayers.

I know how popular those jerky chicken treats are. Around Patterson Park, they're referred to as doggie crack. So I want to pass on this warning from the FDA: The Food and Drug Administration is again cautioning consumers that chicken jerky products for dogs (also sold as chicken tenders, strips or treats) may be associated with illness in dogs. In the last 12 months, FDA has seen an increase in the number of complaints it received of dog illnesses associated with consumption of chicken jerky products imported from China.

At the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, scientists are working on a database that will help drug makers decide which of 1,000 or so materials are safest and most effective to deliver specific medications. It's a project that could get a big boost from a grant up to $35 million to a collection of universities from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that aims to make the nation's drugs safer and less costly, and even produce more jobs, by improving the science of manufacturing.

When Dr. David Kessler took over recently as the new head of the federal Food and Drug Administration, he inherited a budget -- $690 million -- that virtually matched that of his previous institution, the Albert Einstein Hospital in New York, where he had been chief of medicine. But there's a big difference in what those budgets must cover. Unlike a hospital, the FDA wields vast power, with its responsibility for the safety and quality of goods that make up one-quarter of the nation's gross national product.

In their zeal to trim the federal bureaucracy and reduce heavy-handed regulation, Republican leaders in Congress need to tread carefully. Just because an agency like the Food and Drug Administration doesn't approve new products as swiftly as corporate marketing departments would like is no reason to cripple an agency that performs a vital function -- often as vital as the difference between life or death.Sun Washington Correspondent Michael A. Fletcher reports that the incoming speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, thinks the FDA should be "torn down" because it is "the leading job killer in America."

Dr. Kenneth P. Johnson, former chairman of the department of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and an internationally known expert on multiple sclerosis who developed new treatments for the disease, died Saturday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Lutherville resident was 79. "Ken was a visionary in the field of multiple sclerosis and where it was going and developing new therapies. He will be remembered as a very kind person who was wonderful with his multiple sclerosis patients to which he was totally devoted to curing," said Dr. Christopher T. Bever, a longtime colleague who is a professor of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chief of the neurology service at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Baltimore.

Vodka is down, red velvet is up and did Twinings pull a New Coke with Earl Grey? > Vodka is down (or is it) -- the vanguard of expert bartenders are sneering at customers who order vodka. Is a dirty martini the worst drink ever? Toronto restaurateur Jen Agg's " Vodka is Stupid " essay started the anti-vodka campaign back in February: "If your desperation for flavor has you drinking olive brine, just drink gin. Please. " > Red Velvet is higher than gas -- TCBY announces a new red-velvet flavor.