Report: Specialty pharmacies lacking

Report: Specialty pharmacies lacking

washington

Congressional investigators say pharmacy boards in nearly all 50 states lack the information and expertise to oversee specialty pharmacies like the one that triggered a deadly meningitis outbreak last year.

A report released today by House Democrats shows that most states do not track or routinely inspect compounding pharmacies. Staffers surveyed officials in 50 states about their oversight of pharmacies and then compiled responses.

The findings come as lawmakers debate how to prevent another outbreak like that caused by the New England Compounding Center, a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy. Contaminated injections distributed by the company last year have killed more than 50 people and sickened hundreds more.

Compounding pharmacies, which mix customized medications based on doctors’ prescriptions, have traditionally been overseen by state pharmacy boards.

The growth of larger com- pounding pharmacies such as the NECC, which mass-produced and distributed thousands of vials of drugs across the U.S., prompted calls for more federal oversight.

Activists: Syrian airstrikes kill 25

beirut

Syrian government warplanes carried out airstrikes on a neighborhood in the capital and a village in the country’s northeast on Sunday, killing at least 25 people, including a dozen children, activists said.

With its ground forces stretched thin, President Bashar Assad’s regime has relied heavily on its fighter jets and helicopters to try to stem rebel advances in the country’s civil war. The air raids frequently hit civilian areas, drawing criticism from the international community.

Bird-flu death toll rises to 13 in China

beijing

Two more people have died in China from a new strain of bird flu, raising the death toll from the virus to 13, media reported Sunday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the two deaths were reported in Shanghai and that three new cases also were confirmed in the financial hub. A total of 11 new cases were reported Sunday — including two in a central province that previously had been unaffected. In all, 60 cases of the virus, known as H7N9, have been reported in China.

Islamic militant shot

tripoli, libya

A security official says the leader of an Islamic extremist militia in Libya suspected of involvement in an attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador has been shot.

Sufyan bin Qumu, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, was shot Sunday in the area of al-Thruwn in the eastern city of Darna, a stronghold of Islamic extremists. The security official said he was taken to a hospital and is in the intensive-care unit.

Boy feared dead, had fallen into crevasse

fairbanks, alaska

A 9-year-old Alaska boy fell into a deep glacier crevasse and state troopers say he likely did not survive.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Shjon Brown of Fairbanks fell into roughly 200-foot while riding a snowmobile Saturday at the Arctic Man Classic, a race involving snowmobiles and skiers or snowboarders in the Hoodoo Mountains off the Richardson Highway.

Alaska State Troopers say the boy apparently fell into a moulin, which forms when water flowing on glaciers erodes ice. A climber descended into the hole and spotted the boy’s helmet, goggles and part of the snowmobile.

Associated Press