Legislation Would Bar Industry-Connected Scientists From Reviewing Drugs

Ilena Rose · medicine forum Guru Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 813

http://cspinet.org/new/200505041.html

EXCERPT: In another recent case, one physician who was paid to appear
in a promotional video for a brand of silicone-gel breast implants sat
on a panel charged with reviewing their safety.

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Legislation Would Bar Industry-Connected Scientists From Reviewing
Drugs

CSPI Supports Hinchey Effort to Reform FDA

Scientists with financial ties to drug makers or other medical
companies would be prohibited from serving on federal advisory
committees charged with reviewing the safety of drugs, if reform
legislation offered by Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) becomes
law. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which
monitors scientists' ties to the drug, food, chemical, and other
industries, announced its support for the legislation, which would
also separate the drug-safety function of the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) from the new-drug-approval function. The FDA
Improvement Act would also make the agency less reliant on fees from
drug companies to fund its work.

Research conducted by CSPI's Integrity in Science Project revealed
that 10 of 32 scientists on a February advisory panel looking into the
safety of the arthritis pain killers known as Cox-2 inhibitors had
financial ties to the several manufacturers of those drugs. If the
votes of those scientists had been eliminated, the panel would have
voted to recommend removing 2 of 3 Cox-2s from the market. In another
recent case, one physician who was paid to appear in a promotional
video for a brand of silicone-gel breast implants sat on a panel
charged with reviewing their safety. According to CSPI, the FDA begins
virtually every advisory panel reviewing a new product with a
statement waiving the prohibition on conflicts of interest for some of
the scientists on the panel. Hinchey's bill would prohibit those
waivers.

"For far too long the Food and Drug Administration has had an overly
cozy relationship with the industries it regulates," said Merrill
Goozner, director of CSPI’s Integrity in Science project. "It is
certainly true that more and more doctors and scientists are accepting
funding from, working for, or investing in drug companies. But the
notion that there aren’t enough without financial conflicts of
interest to serve on federal advisory committees is demonstrably
untrue. Legislation such as that offered by Rep. Hinchey is exactly
what is needed to restore public confidence in the FDA."

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