U.S. Rep. Kinzinger joins colleagues in letter supporting e-labeling prescription drugs

Lawmakers say digital labeling would give health care providers easy access to up-to-date information

Adam Kinzinger, congress

U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon, and Mikie Sherrill, a New Jersey Democrat, sent a bipartisan letter urging a House committee and subcommittee to allow the e-labeling of prescription drugs.

Kinzinger, Sherrill and 18 colleagues addressed the letter to the leadership of the House Committee on Appropriations and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies. In the letter, they urged the committee not to include any language in the fiscal 2022 appropriations bill that would prohibit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from allowing pharmaceutical prescribing information to be delivered in digital form instead of paper.

“Today, the interaction between health care providers, pharmacists and patients has benefited from modernization and the transition to a digital interface. This includes the widespread adoption of electronic health records and the utilization of electronic prescribing. Providers are already very familiar with electronic labeling information,” the lawmakers wrote. “Commonsense modernization of the PI requirements will not only avoid a negative impact to patients but may actually improve patient care by allowing labeling updates to be shared more readily than updates made in paper form would permit. FDA’s PI modernization proposal was prudent in 2014 and should be self-evident in 2021.”

In the letter, the lawmakers highlighted the current potential for the digital sharing of medical information among providers and how this change would give prescribers easy access to the most up-to-date product information available. Nothing in this FDA proposed rule would alter the material a patient receives with a prescription, they said.

The proposed rule also would have a long-lasting positive impact on the environment, the lawmakers said. The FDA estimates as many as 3 billion prescription inserts are produced annually, ranging from a few pages to as many as 45 pages. If the average length of an insert is 30 pages, that would mean 90 billion pieces of paper. Eliminating paper prescription inserts can lead to smaller shipping packages, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing waste and have a beneficial environmental impact – saving about 4.8 million trees annually.