Lawmaker questions FDA priorities, suggests industry ties
September 17th, 2008 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Tainted batches of heparin may have raised concerns with the general public, but a recent Reuters report suggests the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would rather focus on giving product promotion advice to companies and journal reprints to physicians than food and drug safety scares.
The FDA also planned to change its regulations to protect device makers’ FDA-approved products from lawsuits with a so-called preemptive clause, according to Reuters.
The news agency says that in a letter from California Rep. Henry Waxman, to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, Waxman raised concerns that the items outlined on the FDA’s 2007 priorities list “all appear to prioritize industry desires over consumer protection.”
Then-FDA Chief Counsel Sheldon Bradshaw told Waxman in an e-mail that he planned to forward the list of priorities to Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Tevi Troy. Both Bradshaw and Troy have ties to the pharmaceutical industry, Reuters reports.
Waxman, who serves as the head of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, suggested that political appointees at the agency may be promoting industry priorities at the expense of FDA’s core public health mission.
Highly publicized safety scares, including bacteria-laced foods and contaminated batches of heparin, have put the FDA in the hot seat in recent years. According to Reuters, an FDA spokesperson said the agency would respond directly to Waxman about the concerns he raised.