Dear FDA: The clozapine REMS must end.
The Angry Moms' national efforts to end this harmful bureaucratic barrier to lifesaving treatment are covered by Senior Medical Reporter Robert Langreth in a December 2024 edition of Bloomberg’s Prognosis Newsletter:
A founding member of The Angry Moms, Rachel Streiff, appeared as a guest on Dr. Ahmad Khan’s Mental Health Awareness Podcast. Dr. Khan is the Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
Ms. Streiff offers an update on the status of advocacy efforts surrounding the clozapine REMS and an insight into the future of this important medication:
Psychiatric Times published a podcast titled “A Conversation About the Clozapine REMS” with Dr. Michael Asbach and Dr. Autumn Roque:
The clozapine REMS is still in full effect until the FDA takes meaningful action in response to the November 19th, 2024 advisory committee vote of 14 to 1 in favor of ending the clozapine REMS certification and ANC documentation requirements.
In the meantime, this hazardous program is causing harm daily.
The Angry Moms will continue to publish our “Negligence of the Week” emails with highlights from the complaints sent to us each week through our website and social media channels. We will continue to publish these stories until the FDA expressly ends weekly and biweekly dispensing intervals, authorizes all patients to have at least one week of emergency doses, and instructs all pharmacies to dispense clozapine as indicated by the prescriber.
No critical lifesaving medication should ever be rationed in weekly quantities.
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The Angry Moms
I'm frustrated that their response and solution to fix this dangerous system is taking so long. Surely seeing proof of the harm it causes would ignite immediate action? Right??
A few months ago we had to go up in clozapine in the middle of the month. That meant that my kid ran out of some of their doses and I had to cut larger dose pills in half's and fourths to cobble together their medicine! We literally ran out of medicine the day it could be refilled and from the blood testing to the psychiatrist to the pharmacy I prayed no glitches would happen. Or my kid would go without!!
My kid has been on clozapine for 4 years with…