FDA to Loosen Conflict of Interest Rules—Says They Interfere with Drug Approvals!

Darn those conflict of interest rules. They slow down drug approvals! Therefore, goes the thinking of the FDA director, the rules must be loosened.

by Heidi Stevenson

26 July 2011

Darn those conflict of interest rules! They're slowing down drug approvals at the FDA. So, in the face of overwhelming proof of malfeasance due to conflicts of interest, FDA Director Margaret Hamburg plans to loosen the rules.

Although it's become quite obvious that conflict of interest rules are currently inadequate to prevent corruption in the FDA, Hamburg is claiming that they're hampered in their ability to find enough subject matter experts to sit on panels.

The chair of the Energy and Commerce congressional committee, Fred Upton, has complained that the conflict of interest rules are delaying new drug approvals.

The question we should be asking is: Why should we care what someone on the Energy and Commerce Committee thinks about the rate of drug approvals?

Of course, we shouldn't care. The Energy and Commerce Committee is concerned with the health of industries, not with our health. However, the fact that Upton's opinion on a medical issue is taken seriously tells us that the FDA's interests are not with the people's health. The FDA is acting as a front for the pharmaceutical industry. Their interest is in promoting Big Pharma's trade, not in protecting the people's health.

Pharmaceutical Subject Matter Experts

What makes a doctor a pharmaceutical subject matter expert? Is it years of knowledge in the field? In most instances, that seems not to be the case. Instead, subject matter experts are usually defined as doctors who have been involved in studies on particular drugs. But, those studies are nearly always done or controlled by the pharmaceutical companies who develop those drugs.

New drugs are rarely, if ever, studied by any outside agencies. The pharmaceutical corporations won't take a chance by allowing independent testing. Therefore, hardly anyone gets money to do studies on drugs unless paid, directly or indirectly, by Big Pharma.

It's obvious that the so-called experts are doctors who are paid by Big Pharma. Of course there's a shortage of so-called qualified subject matter experts!

Obvious Solution Ignored

The obvious solution would resolve two problems: the corruption inherent in Big Pharma producing its own studies and the shortage of independent subject matter experts. All that needs to be done is to require that all drug studies be done independently, completely free of pharmaceutical corporation money. Instead, the FDA is pushing to make the situation worse!

It should come as no surprise that Representative Upton's opinion matters. It's all part of the true picture of the FDA. It isn't an agency focused on protecting the people's health. The FDA's interest is in promoting the interests of Big Pharma.

Pesky conflict of interest rules interfere with the dog and pony show that makes it look like they're protecting the people's interests. Nearly everyone who could be considered an expert has been ground into the pharmaceutical industry's corruption mill. So, there aren't enough noncorrupt doctors to be involved in the FDA's drug approval process.

Loosening the rules to let more corrupt doctors with conflicts of interest profit by pushing drug approvals through faster and faster is obviously not a solution. No honest person could possibly suggest it with a straight face. Yet, that's exactly what the FDA plans to do.