The FDA needs some guts, not PR (GAP's Cantu) [View All]

[struggle4progress]

Jonathan Cantu • published November 2, 2008 12:15 am

... This has been yet another tormented year for the FDA. February brought congressional hearings into the agency’s lax regulation of fatal drugs. March brought a congressional report scorching the FDA for its woefully inadequate inspection of foreign products entering the United States, shockingly illustrated by that month’s Chinese ingredient-tainted Heparin scandal that involved at least 81 American deaths. The summer months brought the FDA’s long struggle to contain a salmonella outbreak that it attributed to tomatoes, but was caused by peppers.

What was the FDA’s response to this string of spotlighted failures? To hire a marketing firm to remake the agency’s public image.

Comically, the FDA botched that task, too. Investigative reports show the agency circumvented the mandated competitive bidding process in order to steer the PR contract to a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm.

After the failures of Vioxx, the respiratory drug Ketek, bacteria-laden spinach and a roster of other safety lapses, it’s obvious why the agency is seeking a reputation boost. But this won’t come about through Madison Avenue spin jobs. This PR debacle is a microcosm of the inherent problem at FDA that must be addressed: Officials are more concerned with limiting bad press and helping corporate friends than with safeguarding public health ...

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200881024055