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A federal court has ordered the Food and Drug Administration to revisit its decision not to ban the use of certain antibiotics in animal feed and criticized the agency for relying on industry to voluntarily limit the use of these drugs.
This week, the federal district court in Manhattan ruled that the FDA must reconsider two citizen petitions that asked the agency to withdraw approval of some antibiotics used in food-producing animals. The agency’s denial of both petitions years ago was “arbitrary and capricious,” the court said.
When the FDA rejected the two citizen petitions — filed in 1999 and 2005 — it failed to weigh scientific evidence as required by law, Katz wrote. Instead, the agency considered only the time and cost it would take to withdraw the drug approvals and the fact that it was pursuing alternative regulatory proposals.
Wednesday June 6, 2012/ The Washington Post/ United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
