America's Shadow Pharmacies

Expert witnesses testified that to address such dangers, Congress should give the Food and Drug Administration authority over compounders. Not everyone agreed. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) commented from the dais that he’d met privately with a physician named Steven Hotze, who was “eager to provide the committee with his input on this important topic.” That input bore the stamp of Hotze’s free-market philosophy. “Regulatory agencies,” he asserted in written testimony, “cannot prevent an individual from committing a criminal act. However, regulatory agencies can, and often do, adversely affect the efficient, safe, and productive practice of business.”