[Mb-civic] A Rudderless, Leaderless FDA

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A Rudderless, Leaderless FDA 
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By James Guest and Marvin M. Lipman
James Guest is president of Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports; Marvin M. Lipman MD is chief medical advisor at Consumers Union.

January 18 2005

It's been a rough time for the Food and Drug Administration. Daily revelations about the potentially serious side effects of nationally known pain relievers — Vioxx, Paxil, Celebrex, Aleve, Bextra — have cast doubt over the agency's ability to ensure drug safety. Those doubts were reinforced in November when the agency's drug-safety-reviewer-turned-whistle-blower, Dr. David Graham, testified before a Senate committee, saying, "Simply put, FDA and its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research are broken." 

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-guest18jan18,0,5255553.story 

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