The FDA's Darkest Days Are Here

FDA Is Flexing Less Muscle, write Marc Kaufman and Brooke Masters in this major page one story on the FDA. The gist:

In the past four years, the Food and Drug Administration has taken a noticeably less aggressive approach toward policing drugs that cause harmful side effects, records show, leading some lawmakers, academics and consumer advocates to complain that the agency is focusing more on bolstering the pharmaceutical industry than protecting public health.

Today the New York Times joins in the page one coverage

:Federal drug regulators are "virtually incapable of protecting America" from unsafe drugs, a federal drug safety reviewer told a Congressional panel on Thursday, and he named five drugs now on the market whose safety needs "to be seriously looked at." In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Dr. David Graham, the reviewer in the Food and Drug Administration's office of safety research, used fiery language to denounce his agency as feckless and far too likely to surrender to demands of drug makers.