July 2008              return to newsletter contents page

Write Your Congressmen in Support of Safeguarding America's Pharmaceuticals Act

AVDA’s Executive Director, Jackie King, met recently with representatives from the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA), Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) and National Coalition of Pharmaceutical Distributors (NCPD) in Washington who are supporting the H.R. 5839, Safeguarding America’s Pharmaceuticals Act. This coalition of associations and companies is working hard to get grassroots support for this bi-partisan legislation that would create a single, national pedigree standard and ensure that distributors can reasonably comply with federal pedigree regulations.

AVDA signed a joint letter of support for the bill with the other members of the coalition. We are encouraging AVDA members to write to their representatives in Congress to voice support for the bill. AVDA has learned that the intent of this legislation is to include only human prescription drugs in the pedigree requirements, not including veterinary prescription drugs. Many AVDA members who distribute human prescription drugs to the veterinary industry will still need to comply with state and federal pedigree laws, and should consider supporting H.R. 5839 because it will provide a single standard for pedigree and help secure the supply chain for human pharmaceuticals in the U.S.

A draft letter of support is attached, and members are encouraged to use this letter as a template. Any additional information about your company, as well as information regarding how this legislation would benefit you and help improve your business processes, is welcomed.

Here is a link to the U.S. House of Representatives web site, where you can locate contact information for your representative. Members are encouraged to contact members of the House Energy and Commerce Health Sub-Committee first, as this is the committee that will be holding hearings about the legislation initially.