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Reports Claim FDA Blocking Importation of Cantharidin

Dermatologists are banding together to try and persuade the Food and Drug Administration to stop squishing access to beetle juice.

Cantharidin, a vesicant extracted from crushed Chinese blister beetles, has been used by dermatologists for many years. But some compounding pharmacies have stopped making it after receiving letters from the FDA.

The letters warn the manufacturers that cantharidin is not an active ingredient in any FDA-approved drug, so the FDA does not sanction its use in pharmacy compounding.

The FDA also discourages importation of cantharidin from Canada.

We first reported on this issue in November 2010.

"It's a big problem," said Dr. Robert Sidbury, chief of dermatology at Seattle Children's Hospital, one of a number of academic medical centers where cantharidin is no longer available. "We don't have it. We can't get it."

Speaking at the SDEF Women's and Pediatric Dermatology Seminar, he encouraged dermatologists who have had trouble getting cantharidin, and who think this difficulty is a disservice to their patients, to e-mail Amanda Grimm at agrimm@aad.org of the AAD. Tell her when the trouble started and the name of your compounding pharmacy, so the AAD can characterize the scope of the problem for the FDA. The AAD has heard from more than 50 dermatologists so far.

Dr. Sidbury and AAD officials will be lobbying the FDA to try to restore access to cantharidin. Skin and Allergy News will be following the story.

-- Sherry Boschert (on Twitter @sherryboschert)