Since the Bush administration took control of the FDA, editorial pages in the major newspapers, along with respected medical journals, have broadcast outrage over the agency’s failure to protect the public from an industry focused on profits only.
According to a May 2006, poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive, the majority of adults in the U.S. think the FDA's most important function is to ensure the safety and efficacy of new prescription drugs.
However, the poll found that the public has come to doubt the FDA's ability to do its job, with 7 out of 10 adults giving the agency a negative rating and a large majority saying the FDA's decisions are influenced more by politics than science.
Experts from all over the country have been openly expressing their concerns about the FDA and urging lawmakers to act. On October 9, 2006, Dr. Curt Furberg, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, was one of five current and former members of the FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, who called on Congress to change how the FDA polices Big Pharma, in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Because of the FDA's poor performance in regulating the industry, Dr. Furberg said, "new drugs are introduced on the market with inadequate safety documentation."
"Serious adverse drug reactions are later reported from the marketplace, and a large number of patients are unnecessarily injured before the drugs are withdrawn or better managed," he stated.
And a number of current and former FDA employees have come forward to say that the politically appointed officials at the top of the agency have sold out to the very industry that it is supposed to regulate.
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