Editorials, Opinion Pieces Examine Prescription Drug Safety, Regulatory Issues

Several newspapers recently published editorials and opinion pieces related to concerns about consumer safety, the pharmaceutical industry and recent FDA regulatory actions. Summaries of the articles appear below.

Editorials

• Akron Beacon Journal: Recent findings that Pfizer's Celebrex may increase a person's risk for heart problems "presen[t] a stiff challenge for an FDA that appears inadequately equipped," a Beacon Journal editorial states. The editorial concludes, "The time has come to update [FDA's] tools, providing more sophisticated authority than the current labeling of a drug as approved or not. FDA must have the power to act quickly and precisely, targeting legitimate concerns yet preserving the value to improve lives" (Akron Beacon Journal, 12/21).
  


• Houston Chronicle: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's choice of former House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Billy Tauzin (R-La.) as the organization's president "suggests that [Tauzin's] million-dollar salary is a reward for previous service to the industry," according to a Chronicle editorial. The editorial adds that Tauzin played a "key role" in drafting the new Medicare law, which the Chronicle contends will benefit the pharmaceutical industry "more than the patients" (Houston Chronicle, 12/20).
  


• New York Daily News: FDA "has proven ineffective in monitoring such dangers" as the potential heart risks posed by Merck's Vioxx and Pfizer's Celebrex, relying instead on "the consumer-protection system" to alert the public to safety concerns, a Daily News editorial states. "Clearly, it's time to rein in the high-stakes game of creating blockbuster drugs and marketing them like Coke or Pepsi" before "the job of policing drug makers [is] commandeered by trial lawyers," the editorial concludes (New York Daily News, 12/21).
  


• Raleigh News & Observer: Tauzin "is just the latest member [of Congress] to have spun through the revolving door from lawmaker to well-paid influencer of laws," making the "appearance of influence-peddling loo[m] large" and "corrod[ing] the ideas of clean government," according to a News & Observer editorial. "Congress hasn't fulfilled its duty until it better limits its own from seeming to take advantage of the system, in a way that appears to put private interests ahead of public," the editorial concludes (Raleigh News & Observer, 12/19).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Greg Critser, Los Angeles Times: As president of PhRMA -- "perhaps the single most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill" -- Tauzin "will be able to make sure that PhRMA and its member companies continue to get what they want," Critser, author of two books about the pharmaceutical industry, writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece. "The fact that Tauzin ... recently recovered from stomach cancer will probably affect his political proclivities and perhaps his PhRMA agenda," Critser concludes (Critser, Los Angeles Times, 12/20).
  


• Marc Siegel, New York Daily News: As the "prescription drug pendulum swings from panacea to panic," the only constant is "the sad fact that the public is being routinely misinformed about drug safety," Daily News columnist and New York University professor Siegel writes in an opinion piece. According to Siegel, "The FDA's client should be the American public, not the big pharma cartel. The FDA can stop greasing the wheels to approval and start concentrating on the post-approval period" (Siegel, New York Daily News, 12/21).
  


• Richard Friedman, New York Times: "Pfizer's announcement that it will halt consumer advertising for ... Celebrex but continue to sell it strains logic," Friedman, director of the Cornell University's Weil Medical School Psychopharmacology Clinic, writes in letter to the editor of the New York Times. "If a drug is truly safe and effective, then a drug company has little to fear from advertising it to the public," Friedman adds, concluding, "Pfizer's action will only foster the public's growing perception that the drug companies place profit ahead of public safety" (Friedman, New York Times, 12/21).
  


• Merrill Goozner, New York Times: FDA's "failure to spot the warning signs that popular painkillers like [Celebrex] or [Vioxx] increased the risk of heart attacks or its failure to warn doctors about the risk of suicide among children taking antidepressants has resulted in bipartisan anger on Capitol Hill," Goozner, director of the Integrity in Science project at the Centers for Science in the Public Interest, writes in a Times opinion piece. To "break [the] ties" of FDA advisory panels that are "larded with scientists tied to private companies," Congress should establish an independent branch of FDA to conduct final pharmaceutical and medical device tests and an independent agency for comparative drug trials, Goozner suggests. He also writes that medical professionals should "adopt strict ethics rules that limit the access of drug representatives to doctors' offices" (Goozner, New York Times, 12/21).
  


• Doug Bandow, San Diego Union-Tribune: In a Union-Tribune opinion piece, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Bandow refutes the "gaggle of activists and politicians [who] would turn drugmakers into public utilities and regulate prices." Bandow writes, "Price controls would discourage companies from investing in products with more uncertain, though potentially more lucrative, pay-offs." He concludes that while "Americans might prefer to pay less for their medicine," they "will be the biggest losers if they myopically kill the golden pharmaceutical goose" (Bandow, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12/16).