When Big Tobacco files suit ...
I hope they prove in court the FDA
has been having unprotected sex with BP for decades !!
And the offspring look like
Lester M. Crawford, former chief of the Food and Drug Administration, was charged yesterday with conflict of interest and lying about stock he and his wife owned in companies the agency regulates.
Lester M. Crawford before a Senate committee in 2004. He is to admit two misdemeanors in a federal court in
Dr. Crawford, who resigned abruptly in September 2005, just two months after his nomination had been approved by the Senate, is expected to plead guilty in federal court in Washington today, said his lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder.
"The
Andrew von Eschenbach FDA era is upon us. The Avandia scandal is the tip of the iceberg. Is anyone ready? The words illicit financial collusion have been replaced by the politically correct term, collaboration. On May 30, in defense of his cozy relationship with Big Pharma and Big Biotech von Eschenbach told reporters, This is a collaboration, but its not just a collaboration with drug companies, its a collaboration with academia and with other agencies. And he forgot to include that it is also a collaboration with various Senators, such as Senator Bennett (R-UT) and Senator Hatch (R-UT), as can be seen by the highly lucrative Critical Path Initiative program for cardiovascular disease research at the University of Utah.
Plainly stated, the FDA is set on becoming a drug company involved in every aspect of drug development for the next century. This pipe dream involves using sophisticated FDA software and related technologies to set the standards for the future of medicine, which will soon require your DNA in an FDA-owned supercomputer if you would like medical care. The FDA will help design all drugs from the ground up. The FDA, through the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, will control all patents and licensing arrangements regarding the drugs that are developed.
Under this plan the fox will not only be in charge of the henhouse, the fox will eat hens at will. Privacy issues, genetic discrimination, and required implantable RFID chips will be the order of the day. Billions of dollars are at stake. Wall Street cant wait. Drug safety and the health options of all Americans hang somewhere in the balance, including access to safe and effective dietary supplements (the only true competition)."
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I want to reinstate a science-driven environment,
Daschle said in a Reuters article. I want to take ideology and politics as much as humanly possible out of the process and leave the scientists to do their job.
FDA Employees Say Agency Isn
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"As the letter in question stated, The culture of wrongdoing and cover-up is nothing new but is part of a longstanding pattern of behavior. The Wall St. Journal reported managers have ordered intimidated and coerced scientists to manipulate data in violation of the law. The letter also names names and speaks of, extensive evidence of serious wrongdoing by
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Dr. Frank M. Torti, top FDA attorneys, Center and Office Directors, and many others in prominent positions of authority at FDA.
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An Update On Colonel Klinks FDA
Last week, we told you how
FDA Deputy Commissioner Frank Torti had written a memo to his staff warning against any sort of whistle-blowing behavior and threatening disciplinary sanctions and/or individual criminal liability to those who failed to take heed.
Now it seems Senator Chuck Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has penned a fiery missive of his ownto Mr. Torti. In it, Grassley defended FDA employees who released pertinent information, referring to them as patriotic.
I have serious concerns that your memorandum goes beyond legitimate privacy concerns and appears to run contrary to many statutes protecting executive branch communications with members of Congress, wrote Grassley. Denying or interfering with employees rights to furnish information to Congress is also against the law.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) secretly monitored the personal e-mail of nine whistleblowersits own scientists and doctorsover the course of two years.
FDA Secretly Monitors Emails of Mammogram Whistleblowers
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March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Government employees who think public safety is being compromised may be deterred from speaking out because of a memorandum from the acting head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Senator Charles Grassley said.
Whistleblowers at FDA May Be Stifled, Grassley Says (Update3) - Bloomberg
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Morale Mire
FDA scientists are increasingly unhappy, due to in-house pressures and public criticism. How can the agency restore what it once was?
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/26961/title/Morale-Mire/