Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Susan Collins (R-ME) on Wednesday introduced legislation aimed at combating antimicrobial drug resistance. The Antimicrobial Data Collection Act calls for increased data collection by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), enhanced transparency and public awareness of antimicrobial drug use in agriculture, and is meant to strengthen FDA accountability regarding unsafe antimicrobial drug use.
Specifically, the legislation would require a pilot program to look into new data sources on antibiotics used on food-producing animals. FDA would create a comprehensive data collection strategy, based on the new data sources, in order to increase data availability to the public, and thus, according to the Senators, increase FDA transparency.
The Government Accountability Office would then audit FDA to determine if the data collection for antimicrobial resistance programs is effective in protecting public health. The text of the legislation (S.895) will become available to the public next week.
