The FDA and the drug companies have been very close for some time now, but a new bill, S1082, introduced in the US Senate by Edward Kennedy and Michael Enzi is proposing to arrange a marriage between Big Pharma and its regulatory agency. The drug companies bring a rich dowry, instalments are already being paid through the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) which has allowed the drug companies to provide major funding for the FDA's activities for some years. Of course in return the FDA had to promise to use that money for speeding new drugs to market.

The new bill, which has already passed the relevant committee and is due to be considered by the Senate later this year - it is attached to the obligatory renewal of the PDUFA - goes even further.

One comment by Byron Richards:

"It is hard for anyone to comprehend that the agency that is supposed to be in charge of drug safety is about to become a drug company. It is astonishing that the FDA will now manage a full scale business activity that uses a “non profit” foundation as a shield to avoid international patent problems, protect proprietary rights of its commercial drug-development enterprise, and massively expands FDA regulatory powers to quickly remove anything from the market that is competition to its own products and licensing agreements."

The FDA has shown clearly over the last few decades that it is practically unable to keep Big Pharma in check or protect the health of the American public. But as if the situation was not already serious enough, the FDA "Revitalization Act" as now proposed by Senator Kennedy seems set to institutionalize the incestuous relationship with the industry the agency is supposed to control.

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US HEALTH FREEDOM ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE

By Byron J. Richards, CCN

April 25, 2007

(Original at NewsWithViews.com)

A new attack against health freedom, drug safety, and dietary supplements was launched last week by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) with major support from Michael Enzi (R-WY). It is called the Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act (S1082). This legislation was planned over the past few years working hand-in-glove with the FDA’s dysfunctional management and legal team – meaning this legislation was written for the profits of Big Pharma and Big Biotech AT THE EXPENSE OF SAFETY AND HUMAN HEALTH.

S1082 is a Trojan Horse bill that pretends to address safety issues. Unbelievably, the bill turns the FDA into a drug development company that will expose Americans to new and dangerous biological drugs that have little testing to prove safety or effectiveness. And to top it off, the bill gives broad new regulatory powers to the FDA that can be used to frivolously attack dietary supplements and forward the FDA management’s anti-American globalization agenda.