"Senators Prod FDA Nominee On Politicization of Agency"

Read the full article by Rick Weiss in The Washington Post, August 2, 2006.

Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach testified before the Senate committee considering his confirmation yesterday. Apparently the members focused heavily on the "agency's flagging reputation and its snail's-pace review of the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B."

On Monday, von Eschenbach's announced that the agency is reviving a stalled effort to make Plan B available without a prescription. The article notes that "no case before the FDA has been subject to more political controversy than that of Plan B, a mix of contraceptives that can block pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of intercourse. In December 2003, an expert panel voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing the drug -- long sold by prescription -- to be offered over the counter. But the agency has yet to make a final decision."

More generally, "more than 100 whistle-blower cases are pending at the agency, Mikulski noted -- an outgrowth, she said, of rock-bottom morale, much of it rooted in the perception that the Bush administration is imposing ideology over evidence.

"Several senators cited a recent survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists in which more than 40 percent of nearly 1,000 FDA employees said they knew of cases in which political appointees had interfered with agency decisions."