The FDA’s Conflict of Interest: Firms Pay the Bills

When you fill a prescription or buy medicine over the counter, you have assurance from a power federal agency that the product is not only safe, but that it will do its intended job.  But like other watchdog regulatory agencies, the Food and Drug Administration operates with fees collected from the very companies it is mandated to scrutinize. It’s the old adage of the fox guarding the hen house.

User fees are the bane of regulatory agencies in charge of areas of broad public concern — like the safety of nuclear power plants or public health. Being financially dependent on the very firms it is supposed to oversee can cloud an agency’s judgment, critics charge.

The FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety and effectiveness of food, drugs, medical devices, biologics, cosmetics, pet foods and medicines, and most things sold over-the-counter in drug stores (except dietary supplements, which get a free pass from effectiveness standards). The agency is also supposed to keep track of the manufacturing and marketing of these products, since we don’t want the airwaves turned into the...