Pharma, paper industries battle over requirement to print prescribing information

The pharmaceutical industry is battling the paper industry over a spending bill clause that requires certain prescribing information to be printed rather than shared digitally, The Hill reported July 7. 

The FDA in 2015 proposed a rule that would require drugmakers to deliver certain prescribing information to pharmacists digitally rather than on paper. It applies only to prescribing information delivered to pharmacists, not patient labels. 

The pharmaceutical industry argues that the requirement for the prescribing information to be printed on paper is wasteful and provides pharmacists with outdated information.

The Alliance to Modernize Prescribing Information, a group of pharmaceutical companies, told The Hill that the rule requires the printing of 90 billion unnecessary sheets of paper every year. The Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group, has estimated the rule has led to the destruction of nearly 30 million trees.  

But the paper industry has successfully lobbied Congress to block the FDA's proposal to make the prescribing information digital every year since it was proposed, according to The Hill. 

The Pharmaceutical Printed Literature Association, which represents companies in the printed prescribing information supply chain, told The Hill that healthcare professionals prefer printed prescribing information, and that some rural communities lack broadband internet and may not be able to reliably access the information electronically. 

The House Appropriations Committee's legislation to fund the FDA advanced last week and includes a provision preventing the FDA from digitizing prescribing information, The Hill reported. The Alliance to Modernize Prescribing Information is lobbying lawmakers to remove the provision when it goes to the House floor. 

The House is expected to vote on the legislation when lawmakers return from their Fourth of July recess, according to The Hill. 

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