Trust issues deepen as yet another FDA commissioner joins the pharmaceutical industry
Pharma-giant Pfizer announced on June 28 that the former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb would be joining its board of directors. The move fell in line with a troubling pattern: After their tenure at the FDA, commissioners tend to go on to advise private companies in the pharmaceutical industry.
In fact, 9 out of the last 10 FDA commissioners—representing nearly four decades of agency leadership—have gone on to work for pharmaceutical companies. The lone exception, David Kessler, joined the ranks in academia before eventually settling in his current position as chair of the board of directors at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit nutritional science advocacy group.
https://qz.com/1656529/yet-another-fda-commissioner-joins-the-pharmaceutical-industry/
On its own, Gottlieb’s move from FDA commissioner to Pfizer board member isn’t necessarily a problem for the FDA. There’s nothing illegal about the move, Kessler told Quartz in an interview.
However, when it happens again and again—as it has for the past 38 years—it raises the specter of conflict of interest. The perception of a so-called “revolving door”—a chummy agreement between big drug companies and the regulators who approve their products for sale—undermines trust in the FDA.
“[The American people]believe that the FDA is making their decisions in their interest and no one else’s,” Kessler told Quartz.
In addition to the issues arising from the agency’s pharmaceutical ties, Kessler said he also worries about the FDA’s politicization, which could be viewed as a threat to its ability to base decisions on independent, scientific analysis.