Congress Recommends New Powers for FDA

[OhioChick]

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration should have the power to require that drug makers conduct studies on the safety of prescription medications already on the market, congressional investigators recommend.

Drug makers often promise timely follow-up studies, but they often delay going ahead, the agency said. As a result, the FDA can lack useful data in determining whether an approved drug really is safe, according to a report being released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

Investigators also are urging Congress to change how the FDA tracks potential concerns about drug safety, makes major decisions and settles internal disputes, especially between the two offices that now assess drug safety.

"FDA lacks clear and effective processes for making decisions about and providing management oversight of, post-market safety issues," the report says.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-drug-safety,1,1213526.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[depakid]

1. "...a drug safety board that is independent of the FDA."

Would be the way to go.

The FDA is a captured agency- and is beholden to far right political interests. Even in a Dem administration, they'd still be prone to corruption. Anyone who doesn't think that should look back at the Clinton years....

After all, it was Clinton's FDA that gave the go ahead for TV advertising. And, remember Phen Fen?

[kurth]

2. Currently "FDA approved" is a joke

And the public knows it, too. Thousands have died because of it.

[OhioChick]

3. You're absolutely right.........

I remember watching a program regarding the FDA several years ago. It was astounding to see how many that work for the FDA were being bought off by the big pharmaceutical companies to give drugs the A-OK without extensive testing.

[Lance_Boyle]

4. FDA has plenty of power.

They seem bound and determined to misuse the power they have to allow their sugardaddies in the drug industry to push out unsafe drugs, while at the same time keeping beneficial drugs like Plan B from going OTC. So yeah - let's just throw some more power at 'em, and see how much *more* corrputed they can get.

[Demeter]

5. Then Congress Better Outlaw "Political Appointments"!

Whatever happened to the concept of Civil Service ensuring that fully qualified, Reality-based, useful people hold government offices? Of all the damage Bush has inflicted, that was the most callous. We cannot pretend to regulate with "faith-based" non-science and political pandering to religious, financial, or just-plain-nuts Nuts!

Congress must insist that the FDA, the EPA, the Justice Department, and yes, even the CIA and FBI are staffed and operated by professionals, experts, competent people who have the support and respect of their peers, not because of fear of retribution, but because of fitness to serve the people of this nation well.