CSPI on FDA advisory committees
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
FDA should "immediately reform the process of choosing members of advisory committees" and end the "promiscuous use of scientists with conflicts of interest," the Center for Science in the Public Interest says in a FDL-1March 10 letter to Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford, PhD. The letter closely follows a CSPI investigation finding that 10 of the 32 advisory committee members during the February meeting on COX-2 inhibitors had financial ties to Pfizer, Merck and Novartis (1"The Tan Sheet" March 7, 2005, p. 15). FDA also should "limit the number of panel members with any industry ties to no more than half the committee," the letter asserts. A list of proposed advisory panelists and their biographies should be posted no later than 30 days before the meeting and "not within the last 72 hours as is presently the case." The public should then be given 20 days in which to comment on the proposed roster, CSPI says...