FDA Scientist Survey Results on Political Influences

For some time now, we have been hearing the news about the embattled FDA’s appearance of a conflict of interest between their mandate to protect the American public, and their close ties and associations to the pharmaceutical companies they review. We can go into considerable depth of past events where the FDA allowed a “fast track” to be employed on the drug approval process due to the urgings of the pharmaceutical companies, but I think one of the most telling examples of the internal conflicts plaguing the FDA is indicated in a recently released survey.

Just shy of 1000 FDA scientists responded to a blind survey conducted by the Union for Concerned Scientists, with almost one fifth of those saying they "have been asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or their conclusions in a FDA scientific document."

Yikes!

We already know that the scientists who have stood up as whistle blowers in the early stages of approval processes for drugs like Vioxx routinely experience a backlash from their superiors. I cannot help but wonder how many more scientists would have reported similar tactics if they had complete confidence that the survey was truly confidential.

For the full story on the survey results, go here:
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/fda-scientists-pressured.html