How dare the FDA terrify us over this 17p mess

I'll be the first person to admit - I'm not the activist type. In fact, I wouldn't even care about 17p shots if I wasn't affected by them. I didn't realize (until I was pregnant and with a cervix shortening after a preventative cerclage) that the 17p shot was even so critical until it was prescribed for me. The gist of the story - the FDA grants a pharmaceutical company (Makena) exclusive rights to this shot. So why would this matter? The price of the (weekly) shot would go up from $10-$20 to up to $1500 a shot. This simple little shot is what stands between many pre-term-labor-risk women and pregnancy loss. So how could this happen? How could March of Dimes support this? What was everyone thinking???

The pharmacies that used to produce it were supposedly told to stop producing it. Women went and refilled as much of their prescriptions, and tons of pregnant women braced for the worst. There was some poorly explained patient support program that would provide affordable versions of the medication for people. Despite all the anger - you have to ask yourself - what is the FDA thinking?? This isn't some elective drug to treat a non-critical condition.... like that short-eyelashes condition. This is a matter of life or death.

Anyway - the fuss went on for a few weeks, then I find this article: http://www.freep.com/article/20110331/NEWS06/103310424/FDA-allows-cheaper-version-pregnancy-drug-continue . And there are tons of other articles citing this. What's this... the FDA says..umm oops .. yeah  you cheaper pharmacies... you can still make 17p shots for cheap. So what was the point of this whole circus? Why did we all have to get ourselves wound up over fears of being unable to save our pregnancies. Why are you even giving a company exclusive rights if other people are still allowed to make the drug. Was there any point to this at all?

I'm happy that in a nutshell - nothing has changed - I can still get my drugs - but a TON of energy has been wasted on this cluster! I have to wonder if this was someone's sick idea of a joke - to terrorize pregnant women into thinking they may not be able to afford to save their pregnancies....

ok rant over!