F.D.A. Is Lax on Oversight During Trials, Inquiry Finds

F.D.A. Is Lax on Oversight During Trials, Inquiry Finds

www.nytimes.com

The FDA does almost nothing to police the financial conflicts of doctors who conduct clinical trials of drugs and medical devices in human subjects, government investigators are reporting.

Moreover, the investigators say, agency officials told them that trying to protect patients from such conflicts was not worth the effort.

...a spokeswoman for the F.D.A, said the agency opposed reviewing doctors’ financial conflicts before trials because they represented just one source of bias.

(visit the link for the full news article)



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[edit on 12-1-2009 by TheWayISeeIt]

(Italic emphasis above mine)

I wonder how many more sources of bias there are by FDA standards? And what they condsider would be more prejudicial than the doctor being paid by the drug manufacturer who's product they are supposed to be testing in an unbiased fashion?

Questions. Questions.

And where does the National Institue of Health stand on all of this?

A similar investigation by the inspector general last year found that the National Institutes of Health did almost nothing to police the financial conflicts of university professors who received federal money. And like their colleagues at the F.D.A., officials at the health institutes said they did not want to start doing so, that investigation found.

The above quote is from the orginal article, it is worth the read.

It will be interesting to see how Obama deals with these agencies (FDA, EPA, FEMA, etc.) that have ecome blatant revolving door for lobbyist and industry insiders who work at the behest of their corporate masters.


www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by TheWayISeeIt


It is encouraging to see the mainstream spend any time at all on this topic; which I personally think has been the cause of more treatment-related deaths and injuries than all others combined.

The culture of protection surrounding the pharmaceutical and medical industries is further supported by the institutions of higher learning who make a fortune off 'sponsored' research. I have personally witnessed the process at work. It is laughable.

Profit is the disease.