FDA hopes hospitals will switch to newly regulated pharmacies

The Food and Drug Administration hopes hospitals and clinics will vote with their pocketbooks, buying supplies from pharmacies regulated under new powers just given to the agency. Congress passed a law last month giving the FDA authority to regulate some so-called compounding pharmacies. The aim is to have some oversight over operations that are far bigger than the small pharmacies that make medicines to order. FDA demanded the changes after a fungal meningitis outbreak last year that killed 64 people and sickened more than 750 others across the country. The outbreak was traced to contaminated drugs sold by a single pharmacy – the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts.