Confusion surrounds regulation of various types of drug makers

Stateline: Big Drug Companies Poorly Regulated
Far from triggering a quick fix, the deaths or illnesses of 620 people in 19 states that have been linked to a Massachusetts pharmacy have only underscored confusion over how to regulate the various types of drug-makers in the United States. All that's clear at the moment is that the present federal-state regulatory divide isn't working. "This is the time that we have to get this right," Cody C. Wiberg, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, said last month after attending a hearing convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One of the ideas the FDA floated at that hearing was a bigger role for states in the regulation of drug-making, a role for which some believe they are ill-equipped (Ollove, 1/3).