Repeal law that puts "FDA on the payroll of the industry," says former NEJM editor

doi:10.1136/bmj.39140.456030.DB

BMJ 2007;334:447 (3 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39140.456030.DB

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Repeal law that puts "FDA on the payroll of the industry," says former NEJM editor

Zosia Kmietowicz

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The law that requires drug companies to pay "user fees" to theUS Food and Drug Administration for every drug they submit forapproval should not be renewed when it comes before Congresslater this year, says a former editor of the New England Journalof Medicine.

Writing an open editorial in the Boston Globe, Marcia Angell,who worked for the journal between 1979 and 2000, most recentlyas editor in chief, said that the Prescription Drug User FeeAct has, in effect, "put the FDA on the payroll of the industryit regulates" (www.boston.com, 26 Feb, "Taking back the FDA").

The act, which was passed by Congress in 1992, "put the foxin the chicken coop" and has changed the focus of the agency,which now serves the industry rather than the public, says DrAngell.

Nearly all of the $300m (£153m; ${euro}$ 230m) that the fees . . . [Full text of this article]