September 11, 2008
Dear Senator McCain,
I am strongly opposed to the FDA’s policy to eliminate the access of compounded hormone medications that contain estriol to doctors and their patients. This is an intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship. Doctors should decide on a case-by-case basis if compounded hormones with estriol are right for their patients. Even the FDA admits that safety is not an issue, and they cannot document a single adverse event in the decades that estriol has been prescribed to patients. It would be disastrous for doctors and patients if the FDA banned the use of estriol.
Doctors and patients alike rely on compounded hormone medications, many of which contain estriol. Without access to individualized compounded prescriptions, both patients and healthcare providers will suffer. This policy restricts access to vital compounded medications that have been deemed to enhance or even save the lives of patients because of conditions that cannot be treated by off-the-shelf pharmaceuticals.
The FDA has overstepped their boundaries with this new policy.
I support H.Con.Res.342 and S.Con.Res.88, bipartisan resolutions which declares FDA’s policy “not in the public interest.”
As your constituent, I strongly urge you to send the FDA a clear signal that this policy must be reversed, and ask you to co-sponsor H.Con.Res.342 and S.Con.Res.88.