We need a new Sherriff is the call of several key members of congress including (Senator Grassley, Republican from Iowa and Congressman John Dingell, Democrat from Michigan).
Between the Tomatoes or Jalapeño’s you make the call and the Chinese Heparin crisis, plus a myriad of problems with post launch pharmaceuticals and devices. These members of congress are calling for the FDA to change the way they fundamentally do business.
In a Wall Street Journal Article titled: Grassley, Dingell Lead Calls
For Overhauling FDA
According to the report:
The lawmakers say an FDA restructuring should build a much taller wall between the agency and the industry it regulates. The FDA would gain authority to recall drugs, which it can’t do today, and to impose significant fines on drug companies for safety violations. The lawmakers also want the FDA to inspect generic-drug makers before approving a new product. Perhaps most importantly, they want the next president to appoint a tough FDA commissioner completely independent from the industry.
FDA officials "are too cozy with the companies they regulate," Mr. Grassley said, adding that new leadership must "fix the culture."
Billy Tauzin, president PhRMA, said he has warned members about what may lie ahead. "It’s an accumulation of things some companies did over the years. Now it’s death by a thousand cuts," he said in an interview. "We gotta stop the bleeding."
To lay the groundwork for their FDA overhaul, Messrs. Dingell and Grassley and their allies have ordered about 20 investigations of drugs and issues involving the FDA. Agency officials have spent hundreds of hours testifying before Congress.
In January 2009, one thing we can count on is a new administration and a new FDA Commissioner who will more than likely have no ties whatsoever to industry, so to all those academic physicians who are doing double duty as advisors to the presidential campaigns in the hope of landing the top FDA Job, if you have done research or spoken on behalf of industry there will be no need to apply for the commissioner’s job.
Wall Street Journal: Grassley, Dingell Lead Calls For Overhauling FDA