Protection Racket for Big Pharma

FDA Runs Protection Racket For Big Pharma By Evelyn Pringle

Why would Americans trust the FDA to regulate the pharmaceutical industry? Since the Bush administration took office the FDA has become the industry's partner in crime. The most notorious protection scheme put in place by the FDA and Big Pharma is the preemption policy that bans private lawsuits against drug companies in state courts once a drug and its label have been approved by the FDA.

On January 8, 2006, the FDA issued new rules for the labeling of prescription drugs, and in the preamble to the rules on page 43, the FDA says, State law actions “threaten FDA’s statutorily prescribed role as the expert Federal agency responsible for evaluating and regulating drugs,” requiring lay persons to second-guess its expert assessments of a drug’s risks and benefits.

(Click here to read more)