Advisers Say F.D.A.’s Flaws Put Lives at Risk: Agency "poorly equipped to protect the public health"

Source: New York Times

By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: December 1, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 — The nation’s food supply is at risk, its drugs are potentially dangerous and its citizens’ lives are at stake because the Food and Drug Administration is desperately short of money and poorly organized, according to an alarming report by agency advisers.

The report, made public on Friday, is the latest and perhaps most far-reaching in a string of outside assessments that have concluded that the F.D.A. is poorly equipped to protect the public health. It was written by three members of the F.D.A. Science Board, an advisory panel that reports directly to the agency’s commissioner, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach. The three authors in turn had 30 scientific advisers.

The report concludes that over the last two decades, the agency’s public health responsibilities have soared while its appropriations have barely budged. The result is that the F.D.A. is falling farther and farther behind in carrying out its responsibilities and understanding the science it needs to do its many jobs. “F.D.A.’s inability to keep up with scientific advances means that American lives are at risk,” the report stated.

Sandy Walsh of the F.D.A. said the agency “values the evaluation done by the subcommittee members and the scientific experts that were consulted” but would not comment further.

Barbara J. McNeil, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and one of the report’s authors, said she was stunned at the agency’s sorry state....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/washington/01fda.html

We'll see.

and transfer funds to personal offshore bank accounts.

Vioxx's danger was *obvious* in Merck's FDA submission, but it was approved anyway because Merck explained it away with an patently-bogus argument.

I wonder how many academics the pharma industry has managed to intimidate or buy off over the past decades. Add to that the number of people bought off by gas & oil, mining, and every other industry.

is actually one of the more benign side effects.

I have not seen that number in any peer reviewed article.

His estimate was 28,000 - 55,000, for example:

http://health.dailynewscentral.com/index2.php?option=content&do_pdf=1&id=000160

I believe that the study behind this was published in The Lancet.

burn in hell, bastard.

So another step in dismantling the government is complete. I guess Halliburton can take it over, or everyone can police themselves. Oh yeah that's right, that is what is happening now.

There is no reason to believe that anything we buy is safe. No reason to suppose that just because our trusted physician prescribed it, it isn't poison. No reason to suppose that cosmetics don't have lead in them, or that children's toys aren't poisonous.

Everything I grew up believing - that the government was looking out for me, that brand names could be trusted, that the experts I paid for advice were objective - has become dust.

So don't look for much to change, except perhaps if Edwards wins the Presidency- and even then, the necesary funding and re-organization will be "problematic."

"...and DLC type Dems want it that way." Then you state, "except perhaps if edwards..."

The entire time edwards was in the senate he was DLC.

:crazy:

soon after release.

They're trying to fucking kill us is what they're doing. They want to pro-long the inevitable with pills but kill us none the less.

We spend millions on research to discover cures and treatments for cancer, diabetes, heart disease - while pouring poison and unhealthy food into our air, water, soil, and bodies.

maybe blackwater would like to oversee it with a few of their steroid pumped up killers.

Seriously, what do these clowns DO all day instead of DOING THEIR JOBS?

Don't forget that Bush keeps trying to appoint people to the FDA who make decisions based not on science or fact, but on faith (mostly woman-bashing faith).

While the lovely Dems sit and watch.


The nightmare continues, what is next?


This entire government thing looks pretty silly, when a bully can steal the elections and run this country into the ground at his every whim! We are defenseless!

What if the Military had disclaimers like Pharmaceutical Ads?

It's a huge responsibility and nobody is totally equipped for that.

Now you can just privatize it, too. Let your buddies make some MORE profits ('cause we all know how desperately they need money to put food on THEIR families).

Welcome to the 14th century, when the poor died of the plague, and the rich escaped to the country and died of the plague anyway