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FDA Sets Sights on Safety of Drugs ; Harsh Criticism Prompts Agency to Hire Director

Posted on: Sunday, 7 November 2004, 18:00 CST

WASHINGTON Buffeted by criticism, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it would appoint a director of drug safety and take other actions to assure the safety of medications it approves.

As sick and elderly Americans competed in lotteries for scarce flu vaccine, members of Congress chided the FDA for relying on the word of Chiron Corp., the vaccine's manufacturer, rather than investigating as aggressively as British regulators.

Critics also have charged the FDA ignored risks associated with antidepressants and the blockbuster drug Vioxx, then intimidated its own reviewers when they pointed to safety problems in both cases.

Dr. Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told reporters that a great majority of consultations with drug reviewers easily reach consensus.

Galson called the highly publicized disagreements so uncommon they don't merit tweaking the agency's culture to ensure dissenting views are heard.

"It's a rarity. It doesn't represent the culture, so we don't really think there is a need for an overwhelming cultural change," Galson said.

However, Dr. Eric Topol, the Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who pointed to increased cardiovascular risks with Vioxx in 2001, said he's spoken to at least three other FDA researchers who complained the agency minimized their concerns about the drug.

"There has been a climate there ... of suppression of ideas and concerns," Topol said.

Lester M. Crawford, acting FDA commissioner, said the agency's stamp of approval means American drugs are the world's safest. "The measures we are taking are designed to strengthen this quality as well as our consumers' confidence that FDA's processes ensure the highest protection of the public health," he said in a statement.

Galson said the FDA will name a director of the Office of Drug Safety, vacant since October 2003, to oversee the safety of drugs after their approval.

In addition, the agency is asking the Institute of Medicine to study whether improvements are needed to tease out more about a drug's side effects as it comes into more widespread use. The study also will examine whether the agency is too close to the drug industry to regulate it effectively.

The institute is an arm of the National Academy of Science, an independent agency chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.

"We are very proud of our independence," Galson said. "We think most of the charges that have been leveled are just not accurate."

Still, Dr. Wayne A. Ray, a Vanderbilt professor of preventive medicine, said the agency faces an internal conflict. One arm approves drugs, while the drug safety office tests the rigor of those decisions.

"Once the people in the reviewing decision approve a drug, there is a natural human tendency to not confront information that shows that decision might be faulty," Ray said, renewing a call for an independent drug safety board.

To bridge differences among its scientific reviewers, the agency said it would convene an independent panel to review documents and make recommendations.

On the web:

For more information, visit www.fda.gov

Source: Columbian

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