Saturday, September 25, 2004

Looks like FDA's been up to no good

And can you believe the WaPo is actually covering the FDA hearings? This write-up is by Washington Post's Shankar Vedantum.
A Food and Drug Administration medical officer was told by top agency officials to delete material on the risks of antidepressant drugs from records he was submitting to Congress and then to conceal the deletions, according to documents released yesterday at a hearing on Capitol Hill.
A bipartisan House panel said the FDA also repeatedly prevented Andrew D. Mosholder from disclosing his conclusions that the medications increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior among children, potentially delaying the issuance of a public warning. During the day-long hearing, legislators repeatedly accused the agency of obfuscating the risks, slowing action and subjecting Mosholder to harassment.
Damn. Details keep getting more and more amazing. Can these FDA guys be prosecuted for deleting and concealing evidence?

Oh. And here's my piece for reference.