FDLI to launch Food and Drug Policy Forum publication in 2011

In 2011, the Food and Drug Law Institute will launch a new publication — FDLI"s Food and Drug Policy Forum. "The Policy Forum is designed to provide a new electronic marketplace for the exchange of ideas among food and drug law, regulation, and policy professionals," notes Susan C. Winckler, President and CEO of FDLI.

“we are still at serious risk of a pandemic from a virulent mutation of the flu virus”

FDLI's Food and Drug Policy Forum is a concise (approximately 10 pages), twice-a-month, peer-reviewed, digital publication on current food and drug policy topics. Posed in the form of a question, each issue provides subscribers and purchasers with pertinent background information, relevant research, a detailed discussion of central issues, relevant resources and policy recommendations. The views, opinions and statements expressed in the Policy Forum are those of the authors. The Food and Drug Law Institute neither contributes to nor endorses Policy Forum articles. As a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, FDLI does not engage in advocacy activities.

FDLI, founded in 1949, is a non-profit organization that provides a marketplace for discussing food and drug law issues through conferences, publications and member interaction. FDLI's scope includes food, drugs, animal drugs, biologics, cosmetics, diagnostics, dietary supplements, medical devices and tobacco.

The first issue of the Policy Forum (Volume 1, Number 1, January12, 2011) will be pre-released December 7, 2010. Mike Druckman, a partner in the law firm of Hogan Lovells US LLP, examines this emerging national security/health care question: "Should Congress Create Stronger Incentives To Develop Vaccines and other Medical Countermeasures to Protect the United States against Pandemic Influenza and Bioterrorism?"

Druckman concludes that Congress should move expeditiously to address these issues, noting that "we are still at serious risk of a pandemic from a virulent mutation of the flu virus" and we also "still face significant risks from some of the bioterrorism agents that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has placed on its bioterrorism agents priority list . . . ." Druckman specifically recommends that Congress provide statutory exclusivity to the first company that licenses a universal influenza vaccine, following the model of the Orphan Drug Act, and that Congress create an alternate regulatory pathway for certain medical countermeasures.

SOURCE Food and Drug Law Institute