Public Citizen says FDA should not seek more Pharma money

Commenting on the recent US Food and Drug Administration proposal that the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) be re-authorized by Congress this year and that, under the Act, pharmaceutical companies give the agency nearly $400.0 million a year (Marketletter January 22), consumer group Public Citizen says that the agency's crucial drug regulatory functions are too important to be tainted and compromised by direct funding from the very enterprises whose products the agency reviews for safety.

In a statement, Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said that all the better ideas that have been discussed for improving the FDA's functions of reviewing new drugs, post-market safety studies and advertising should be included in the agency's upcoming budget proposal to the congressional appropriations committees. The agency should request these additional funds through the same process that financed the agency from 1906 through 1992. ie, the money should come from the federal Treasury, not the pharmaceutical industry.

Ironically, Dr Wolfe added, "the entire annual amount of funds now sought from industry under the PDUFA is equivalent to fewer than two days of the current expenditures for the disastrous war in Iraq. Where are the congressional priorities?"