Anti-addiction activists are calling for the removal of the head of the Food and Drug Administration because of the approval of a new painkiller that Massachusetts tried unsuccessfully to ban.
Pointing to the FDA approval of Zohydro last year, more than a dozen groups asserted the policies of FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg are contributing to the national drug addiction crisis. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said it was “irresponsible” to approve Zohydro without a tamper-proof format.
" I don't have a point of view about whether she ( Hamburg) should or should not step down, I have a point of view about Zohydro, and the fact that it is not available in a tamper-proof form, which is my objection," said Patrick.
A federal court earlier this year overturned Gov. Patrick’s ban on the sale of the painkiller in Massachusetts. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin has put restrictions on how Zohydro can be prescribed.
