FDA Policy: Big Pharma Firms Pay to Play

Major pharmaceutical companies are engaging in “pay to play” arrangements that allow them to shape public policy on painkiller testing rules and regulations, according to e-mails obtained by a public records request.

The Washington Post reports:

“They are getting a huge amount for very little money (impact on FDA thinking, exposure to FDA thinking, exposure to academic opinion leaders and their expertise, journal article authorship, etc.) and they know it,” explains researcher behind the scheme.

The emails show exchanges between two medical professors at the head of a yearly clinical trials review panel known as IMMPACT. In the exchange, professors Robert Dworkin of the University of Rochester and Dennis Turk of the University of Washington discuss funding for the event and their inclusion of 14 pharmaceuticals companies who paid up to $25,000 each for admittance this year alone.

In these IMPAACT meetings, a panel of scientists, representatives from the FDA, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the participating major pharmaceutical companies discuss the safety of individual painkillers and the procedures and results of clinical trials.