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| Photographer: Marcel ter Bekke/ Getty Images |
Farmers
would no longer be able to purchase the medicines without a veterinarian’s
approval under a plan announced yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration.
Drugmakers will be asked to agree to increased controls over three months, then
will have three years to change labels to remove production uses of
antibiotics, including for weight gain and accelerated growth.
Antibiotics,
often the last line of defense for humans against life-threatening germs spread
commonly in hospitals, are starting to lose power because of overexposure. The
FDA deliberately sidestepped rescinding approval of the drugs’ for livestock completely,
saying a voluntary approach would lead to a faster reduction in the use of the
medicines.
“It is a
hollow gesture that does little to tackle a widely recognized threat to human
health,” Avinash Kar, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said
in a statement. “FDA has essentially followed a voluntary approach for more
than 35 years, but use of these drugs to raise animals has increased.”
About 2
million Americans a year are infected by drug-resistant bacteria, often in
hospitals and nursing homes, and at least 23,000 die, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Industry
Approach
Congressional
Democrats also criticized the FDA guidance, which they said isn’t strong enough
to substantially reduce the use of antibiotics at farms.
“This
voluntary, pro-industry approach is a step in the wrong direction,” U.S.
Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on an
appropriations subcommittee that funds the FDA, said in a statement. “For the
good of public health, FDA should step up and implement tighter restrictions.”
Michael Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, said
the best strategy is to work cooperatively with the pharmaceutical industry.
“This
approach is the fastest way to achieve our goal,” Taylor said in a statement.
“Based on our outreach, we have every reason to believe that animal
pharmaceutical companies will support us in this effort.”
Foodborne
Outbreaks
Overuse of
the medicine on animals eaten by humans is being blamed for foodborne outbreaks
of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that have sickened 19,897 people and killed
26 from 1973 to 2009, according to data from the Center for Science in the
Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group.
About 80
percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are administered to livestock, not to
humans, DeLauro said. That gives companies little motive to volunteer to reduce
the medicines’ use at farms, said NRDC’s Kar.
Zoetis Inc. (ZTS), the Madison, New Jersey-based animal-health business that Pfizer Inc.
spun off this year, said it supports the FDA’s decision.
“Zoetis has
been a leader in providing ongoing education to veterinarians and livestock
producers on the proper use of antimicrobial drugs to treat, control, and
prevent infection and disease in livestock animals,” the company said in a
statement. “As the new policies move forward, we remain committed to
researching and developing new therapeutic products and strategies.”
To contact
the reporter on this story: Alex Wayne in Washington at awayne3@bloomberg.net
To contact
the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
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