January 16, 2007 at 04:56:23

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The Bush Administration's FDA

By Evelyn Pringle (about the author)     Page 1 of 4 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

For OpEdNews: Evelyn Pringle - Writer

Since the Bush administration took control of the FDA, editorial pages in the major newspapers, along with respected medical journals, have broadcast outrage over the agency's failure to protect the public from an industry focused on profits only.

According to a May 2006, poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive, the majority of adults in the U.S. think the FDA's most important function is to ensure the safety and efficacy of new prescription drugs.

However, the poll found that the public has come to doubt the FDA's ability to do its job, with 7 out of 10 adults giving the agency a negative rating and a large majority saying the FDA's decisions are influenced more by politics than science.

Experts from all over the country have been openly expressing their concerns about the FDA and urging lawmakers to act. On October 9, 2006, Dr. Curt Furberg, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, was one of five current and former members of the FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, who called on Congress to change how the FDA polices Big Pharma, in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Because of the FDA's poor performance in regulating the industry, Dr. Furberg said, "new drugs are introduced on the market with inadequate safety documentation."

"Serious adverse drug reactions are later reported from the marketplace, and a large number of patients are unnecessarily injured before the drugs are withdrawn or better managed," he stated.

And a number of current and former FDA employees have come forward to say that the politically appointed officials at the top of the agency have sold out to the very industry that it is supposed to regulate.

One does not have look far back in history to substantiate that allegation. Two months after the last FDA commissioner, Lester Crawford, was confirmed, MSNBC ran the headline, "Embattled Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester Crawford abruptly resigned Friday, telling his staff that at age 67 it was time to step aside."

"As late as 2004, former Food and Drug Administration head Lester Crawford or his wife owned stock in companies that make or distribute products regulated by the agency," the Wall Street Journal reported on October 26, 2005.

Six months later, on April 29, 2006, the New York Times announced that Mr. Crawford was under investigation by a federal grand jury over allegations of financial improprieties and making false statements to Congress, quoting his lawyer Barbara Van Gelder.

On October 16, 2006, the Associated Press reported that Mr. Crawford had agreed to plead guilty to charges of failing to disclose a financial interest in firms regulated by the FDA and that the Justice Department accused him in court papers, "of falsely reporting that he had sold stock in companies when he continued holding shares in the firms governed by FDA rules."

Representative, Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), led the call last year for an investigation into Mr. Crawford's sudden resignation with a focus on potential financial conflicts of interest. On October 16, 2006, he released a statement saying, "Senior officials at the FDA have led the agency down a dark road into a state of crisis."

"By blatantly ignoring the law on financial holdings and conflicts of interest," Rep. Hinchey stated, "Lester Crawford used his position as the head of the FDA to send all the wrong signals to other FDA employees and the American public."

"It is not possible for the FDA to fairly and impartially regulate the food and drug industries," he said, "when the commissioner of the agency has a vested financial interest in the results."

"The days of letting the FDA treat the pharmaceutical industry as a client rather than a regulated entity," Rep. Hinchey stated, "must come to an end."

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