The FDA is one of the most highly corrupted and corrupting organizations on the planet. Charged with food, drug and cosmetic safety, what has been protected is the financial safety of corporate profits with the tickle-down effect firmly in place: regulators and panel members get rich quick through lucrative, unethical and often illegal stock deals, stock options, family financial hanky panky and a host of variations on the theme.

Perhaps you remember the advisory panel of experts that put Vioxx back on the market despite at LEAST 55 thousand deaths in the US alone (perhaps as many as 188 thousand, according to some). The members of that panel had a majority of experts on it who owned stock and had other financial interests in Merck and related corporations. They overruled previously presented advice by people who did NOT have financial interests to allow Vioxx back on the market. Shortly thereafter they approved Vioxx for children!

But perhaps things are getting better. Lester Crawford, who served as the acting Commissioner of the FDA for over a year before his confirmation in 2005 suddenly left his post — suddenly, as in during the course of a single day. His reason? Spending time with the family, of course. The real reason? Illegal stock dealings. Could this be the beginning of a house cleaning? Let’s hope so. The Institute of Medicine says that the FDA is broken. It certainly is. What broke it is the corruption of too much money buying too much influence.

The Institute of Medicine released a study on the safety of pharmaceuticals which was a damning condemnation of the FDA.  Coming from the same organization which supports the status quo in a report that says there is no link between autism and mercury (http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2004/504_iom.html) this is a stinging criticism, indeed.  The IOM says the FDA cannot be trusted and is, frankly, broken. In placid, cool bureaucratic tones, here is the scathing abstract of that report in the IOM’s words:

Part of that failure, of course, is a failure of leadership.  Lester Crawford is not unique in his corruption.  He is unique in that his corruption (or a small piece of it?) has been publicly exposed.  Here is Pete Yost’s story on Crawford’s corruption:

Ex-FDA Chief to Plead Guilty

By PETE YOST

The Associated Press

Monday, October 16, 2006; 6:44 PM

WASHINGTON — Former FDA chief Lester Crawford has agreed to plead guilty to charges of failing to disclose a financial interest in PepsiCo Inc. and other firms regulated by his agency, his lawyer said Monday.

The Justice Department accused the former head of the Food and Drug Administration in court papers of falsely reporting that he had sold stock in companies when he continued holding shares in the firms governed by FDA rules.

Court papers say Crawford chaired the Food and Drug Administration’s Obesity Working Group while he and his wife owned shares worth at least $62,000 in soft drink and snack food manufacturer Pepsico Inc., based in Purchase, N.Y. In addition, the documents say, he held stock worth at least $78,000 in food product manufacturer Sysco Corp., based in Houston.

While he and his wife owned the stock, the panel Crawford chaired met with representatives from the packaged food industry and gave congressional testimony encouraging manufacturers to relabel serving sizes to give calorie counts greater prominence.

Crawford “is going to plead guilty to two misdemeanors tomorrow afternoon and he is going to admit his financial disclosures had errors and omissions, mostly with his wife’s continued ownership of stocks,” said Crawford’s lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder.

“At the end of the day, he owned these stocks and he will admit he owned them while he was at the FDA and he will take responsibility for that,” said Van Gelder. She said Crawford was not disputing the government’s claims in what she called a plea agreement.

Accused of making a false writing and conflict of interest, Crawford was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate Tuesday afternoon. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison.

The papers say Crawford failed to disclose his income from exercising stock options in Embrex Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., an agriculture biotechnology company that has been regulated by FDA. Crawford had been a member of Embrex’s board of directors, according to federal filings.

Crawford, a veterinarian, abruptly resigned from the FDA in September 2005 but gave no reason for his departure. He had held the top position for just two months but had been acting head of the agency for more than a year.

According to the Justice Department’s court papers:

_A government ethics official inquired about Crawford’s ownership of stock in several companies FDA regulates and Crawford replied in a Dec. 28, 2004, e-mail that “Sysco and Kimberly-Clark have in fact been sold.” Actually, the court papers state, Crawford knew that he or his wife still held shares in both.

_Even though financial reporting requirements for federal officials say all income must be disclosed, Crawford failed to reveal $8,000 in income from the exercise of Embrex stock options in 2003, and failed to report $20,000 from the sale of Embrex stock options in 2004.

Crawford’s ownership of shares in Pepsico, Sysco, Embrex and the other companies was prohibited under federal regulations, since the companies are considered to be “significantly regulated” by the FDA.

___

AP reporter Andrew Bridges contributed to this story.

© 2006 The Associated Press

Of course, the current “leadership” of the FDA, in positions 1 and 2 are industry men, through and through.  Will the outrages, deaths and betrayals of the American people have to get worse before the house is really cleaned by an outraged Congress acting on the outrage of its citizens?  Let’s hope not.