In an advisory committee weighing whether or not the benefits of four popular Bayer AG birth-control pills outweigh the blood-clot risk , the FDA allowed physicians with ties to Bayer to participate and vote.
At least one of the physicians was a Yasmin advocate and was allowed to vote on the issue. Meanwhile, it was noted that drug-safety crusader Sidney Wolfe, who was appointed to a four-year term on the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee was not allowed to vote “because he had publicly criticized the drugs’ safety in newsletters published by his Public Citizen Health Research Group.”
In a nutshell, the “advocate” was allowed to vote whereas the “critic” was not. this sort of double standard should not be OK.
Mack, John. “FDA’s Advisory Committee Voting Double Standard.” Pharma Marketing Blog. PharmaGuy, 12 01 2012. Web. <http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com/2012/01/fdas-advisory-committee-voting-double.html>.
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