Template letter to inform others about the FDA and thyroid shortages

Below is a template for you to use in order to write a letter to your state Senators and Representatives, as well as any media leaders, newspapers, TV stations, radio announcers…you name it. Our power lies in keeping people informed of our situation.

You can use it just as is, or modify to suit your concerns, taste and style. Making personal changes prevents others from receiving identical emails/letters. But it’s important not to be much longer to prevent “reading fatigue” from your reader. Shorter the better. You can email it, or mail it, or both.

Date

Dear ___________________.

Hello Mr/Ms/Rep/Senator/etc ___________. My name is ________________________. I am a thyroid patient of _________ years, and I am seriously concerned and alarmed about recent heavy-handed actions by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that is negatively affecting my health and well-being.

[Here, give a brief synopsis of the beginnings of your hypo and what you were put on, what your lingering symptoms were, how the TSH failed you…etc etc…how you got on desiccated thyroid, the brand, and specifically how it changed your life. The latter is the most important part. And it’s important to keep this as short as possible while still giving the information. You don’t want to lose the reader of this letter by being too long and verbose]

And I’m not alone. I belong to patient groups of thousands of members where the same testimony is given of harm from levothyroxine like Synthroid, and lives changed from desiccated thyroid like Armour and Naturethroid–a safe, consistent and highly effective prescription medication. A growing body of testimonies are also found on the patient-to-patient website Stop the Thyroid Madness, www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/stories-of-others, which I highly recommend you read.

But sadly, the FDA has recently made some heavy handed and seemingly hypocritical decisions about the pharmaceuticals who make desiccated thyroid tablets. It’s all in the name of bringing all non-FDA approved drugs, which have been safely used for many decades, into line with approved drugs by requiring a New Drug Application.

Namely, as thyroid patients are currently having to cope with a shortage due to demand being greater than supply, the FDA just told the only remaining pharmaceuticals who make desiccated thyroid to cease production–Time Caps Labs and Major Pharmaceuticals.

I like many other thyroid patients are now WITHOUT any source of desiccated thyroid.

As a result, I am facing a serious return of {name your worst symptoms}.

I find it quite odd that when the FDA required the same New Drug classification and procedures of Abbott Labs a few years ago, the makers of the T4-only Synthroid, they allowed Abbott to continue providing these medications to
patients during the process. Why the double standard??

The FDA is now adversely affecting public health, imposing undue burdens on consumers like myself, and unnecessarily disrupting the market–the very issues they state they would avoid in their 2006 Compliance Manual, Section 7132c.02 titled Marketed New Drugs Without Approved NDA’s.

Please help me and hundreds of thousands of other thyroid patients who are going to suffer. We cannot go on without desiccated thyroid. Read the website www.stopthethyroidmadness.com to help you understand. This is a serious crisis.

Sincerely,

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