Fw: Urgent Action Needed on Conflicts of Interest at FDA

[Guest guest]

This was sent to my by Dr Uffe Ravnskow - a member of THINCS, The

International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics ( www.thincs.org ).

blessings, Shan

 

 

" Merrill Goozner " <mgoozner

Tuesday, May 08, 2007 5:04 PM

Urgent Action Needed on Conflicts of Interest at FDA

 

 

Dear colleagues,

 

We've worked together in the past. I'm asking you to take a few moments out

of your busy day today to take action on a measure that would reduce the impact

of financial conflicts of interest at the Food and Drug Administration.

 

Later today, Senators Durban (D-IL) and Bingaman (D-NM) will offer an

amendment to the FDA prescription drug user fee reauthorization bill today that

places restrictions on the FDA's ability to waive financial conflicts of

interest

of scientists who serve on its 30-plus advisory committees. While this

amendment does not go as far as we'd hoped, it does represent a step forward and

would

set the stage for a better bill to come out of conference committee later

this year.

 

Contacting Senator Ted Kennedy would be especially helpful. His office has

been very reluctant to consider changes in the status quo when it comes to

eliminating conflicts of interest from FDA advisory committees.

 

I know many of you have real problems with the overall thrust of the bill. It

does not scrap user fees in favor of general revenue funding. It does not go

far enough in enhancing the safety monitoring capacities at FDA. It does not

restrict direct-to-consumer advertising.

 

Still, if any of you have time today, it would be helpful if you could email

your senators and Sen. Kennedy asking them to support the Durbin-Bingaman

amendment that would reduce conflicts of interest on FDA advisory committees.

 

The Durbin-Bingaman amendment would:

 

a.. Limit the number of waivers to one per Advisory Committee meeting.

 

a.. Spells out a process to allow experts with a financial conflict to

present information to the Advisory Committee but not deliberate or vote with

the

committee.

 

a.. Enhances FDA*s outreach activities for identifying non-conflicted experts

to participate in Advisory Committees.

 

To reach your senator, you can their email addresses and a form on this page:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

 

You should also send an email to several key staff for key senators,

including Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Dodd on the Democratic side and Sen. Enzi and

Sen.

Hatch on the Republican side.

 

Those aides are:

 

Sen. Kennedy (David_Bowen and David_Dorsey)

Sen. Dodd (Tamar_Magarik)

Sen. Enzi (Amy_Muhlberg)

Sen. Hatch (Patricia_Deloatsche)

 

Thanks as always for your help on these issues. And forgive me for any

doubleposting. There's crossover on several of my lists.

 

Sincerely,

 

Merrill Goozner, Integrity in Science

Center for Science in the Public Interest

tel: 202-777-8374