Financial ties between FDA, drug companies could get even stronger with new "pay to play" TV advertisement review service

http://www.newstarget.com/z021172.html

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published November 25 2006
Financial ties between FDA, drug companies could get even stronger with new
"pay to play" TV advertisement review service
by Ben Kage

(NewsTarget) Under a new deal, pharmaceutical companies will now begin
paying fees to the FDA when it reviews television drug ads in return for the
agency expediting the reviews, but a natural health author says the
arrangement will only strengthen FDA/Big Pharma conflicts of interest if it
goes through.
The fees for the reviews will reportedly go toward hiring people to conduct
the ad reviews, and a large number of pharmaceutical companies are willingly
submitting ads for review. The agreement will also be implemented
concurrently with a separate deal, in which pharmaceutical companies will
pay new user fees to the FDA whenever it reviews applications to market new
drugs. Under this new agreement, experts predict drug makers will have to
pay much larger amounts to the FDA than they do now, and the money is
expected to go toward drug-safety initiatives.

The FDA's parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, has
not yet signed off on the deals and they must also meet Congressional
approval before they are finalized. If approved, the deals will start Oct.
1, 2007, the beginning of the government's 2008 fiscal year.

For fiscal year 2007, the FDA is expected to receive more than $300 million
in user fees under the current arrangement, but experts say the new
agreement could increase that figure by a third.

"This idea makes about as much sense as having drug companies pay the FDA to
review their drugs, and we've already seen the disastrous results of that,"
said Mike Adams, an FDA critic and natural health author. "The FDA is
already far too financially involved with Big Pharma. If anything, the
agency needs to break all ties with drug companies and stop using drug money
to cover its expenses.

"Besides," he added, "shouldn't all television advertising of prescription
drugs be banned in the first place? The United States is the only nation in
the world where this deceptive practice remains legal."