The Food and Drug Administration went into crisis mode this year as, short-staffed and underfunded, it scrambled to track tainted vegetables and medical products….[yet] a decision was made to hire outside public relations specialists – at a cost of $300,000 – to "create and foster a lasting positive image" for the agency.
But the outrage does not end there. The government requires competitive bidding for such contracts, but the F.D.A. official taxed with the image problem already had a friend at a Washington public relations firm picked out for the plum.
This is from a Gregory Conko (Competitive Enterprise Institute) op-ed. in The Wall Street Journal.
Why do terminally ill patients have to wait so long to get access to the only treatments that hold any promise of saving their lives? And why is it not their right to decide?
Last year alone, the FDA rejected five new cancer drugs, including a breakthrough treatment for prostate cancer called Provenge. A panel of cancer experts that advises the FDA on new drug approvals unanimously agreed that Provenge was safe, and voted 13-4 that it was effective enough. But the FDA demanded still more testing that may delay approval for three years.
A study in The Journal of Women's Health finds that more than one fourth of men (27%) and women (29%) often share prescription medications with family and friends. (See the New York Timesreport.)
Apparently a significant number of people are self-diagnosing and self-treating common ailments. Currently a doctor's prescription is required to obtain drugs other than over-the-counter drugs. But doctors are often difficult to see. Increasingly, nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants can prescribe some drugs, but only under the supervision of a doctor. Some proposals before the FDA would allow pharmacists to dispense some prescription drugs without a doctor's order. A better idea is to move more prescription drugs over-the-counter.