On July 11, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill HR 2900, which grants additional power to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while at the same time ensuring deeper financial ties between the agency and pharmaceutical companies.
The law does make some efforts to reduce conflict of interest, including mandating the publishing of a clinical trials database and forbidding more than one FDA official with ties to the industry to sit on a drug decision panel.
However, at the same time, the FDA will actually be allowed to work with drug and biotech companies to develop and launch new drugs. In an unprecedented conflict of interest, the new law places the FDA “in charge of drug design, drug patents, drug licenses, and the creation of new marketing entities/companies.”
The law also allows the FDA to evaluate dietary supplements as they do prescription drugs, which means they can remove supplements from the market as they see fit.
NewsWithViews July 12, 2007NewsTarget July 12, 2007