Gluten in Medicine Identification Act

The Gluten in Medicine Identification Act of 2012 would "require the label of drugs intended for human use to contain a parenthetical statement identifying the source of any ingredient constituting or derived from a grain or starch-containing ingredient." When the NFCA asked for our help back in May, I immediately reached out to my US Representative Carolyn Maloney asking her to support this Act. Yesterday she responded:

Dear Ms. Smith:

Thank you for contacting me in support of The Gluten in Medicine Identification Act of 2012 (H.R. 4972). As your Representative, I welcome the opportunity to respond to your inquiry.

You will be happy to know we are in compete agreement on this issue. I fully support The Gluten in Medicine Identification Act, and am one of the bill's co-sponsors. Sufferers of gluten allergies at times must wait days before a pharmacist or health professional can inform a patient if a required medicine contains ingredients derived from wheat. This is due to ambiguously labeled products that list wheat derived ingredients as "starch". The Gluten in Medicine Identification Act will amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to include a provision which requires drug manufactures to label drugs which contain gluten containing ingredients. The Gluten in Medicine Identification Act will help the millions of Americans who suffer from Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity who must keep to a strict gluten free diet.

Again, thank you for sharing your comments with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
CAROLYN B. MALONEY
Member of Congress

It is nice to know that Rep. Maloney as well as the bill's 9 co-sponsors are taking our plight to the rest of Congress. We take medicine to get better, not to get worse. Without clear labeling, Celiacs take a major risk every time they take medication that does not have a full list of ingredients. As someone that takes thyroid medicine every day, this makes me nervous. (BTW, my meds are totally safe. It says so on the insert and I have spoken to the pharmaceutical manufacturer on more than one occasion.)

Unfortunately, this bill only has a 2% chance of being enacted according to the GovTrack website. It is not too late to ask your local representative to support the Gluten in Medicine Identification Act today. The ACDA makes it easy for you to contact your Rep directly with this website: http://www.capwiz.com/celiac/issues/alert/?alertid=61277271&type=CO.