Pharmaceutical Consultants Detect Food And Drud Administration Rule Breaking
The pharmaceutical consultants at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has criticised the Food and Drug Administration for allowing doctors and researchers with criminal convictions to work for the FDA as supervisors during clinical trials or as researchers. This is a damning indictment of the FDA who has even been found to be breaking their own rules when they fail to debar these personnel when they are discovered to hold a criminal record.
On average, GAO found that it took the FDA an average of four years to get round to debarring doctors with a conviction. This is despite the fact that the administration is required by law to disqualify doctors who have been found guilty of fraud or other crimes. In one case it took the FDA 11 years to disqualify a doctor who had been convicted of 53 charges including covering up a patient’s suicide during a clinical trial.
There are many similar cases to this where doctors have committed fraud, bribery and prescribing medicine without a license. There are even three doctors who continue to work with the FDA despite knowledge that each of them have a criminal conviction.
One of the main charges that the doctors had been found guilty of was falsifying clinical trial data. Participants were made up, they had their consent forced on them and some of the doctors failed to stick to the research plan entirely. And medical devices are one of the most contentious issues in this whole affair. Under present FDA rules, a doctor who has been convicted of a criminal offence is not prohibited from practicing in the medical device industry, which could be putting the lives of millions of people at risk, especially since inhalers used to treat asthma are thought of as a medical device.
Critics do not see any benefits of introducing new rules as the FDA has already flouted many of the laws that currently govern it. Instead, they propose a wide reform of the whole health care system in America. Proposals include that no company director should be allowed to hold a senior position within the FDA and those doctors who break the law should be prosecuted.
Tags: drugs, healthcare, illness, medicines, pharmaceutical consultants