Comments at the FDA’s Public Meeting: Optimizing FDA’s Use of and Processes for Advisory Committees
In comments at the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) public meeting, “Optimizing FDA’s Use of and Processes for Advisory Committees,” Public Citizen urged the FDA to (1) maintain or perhaps even expand voting questions as a central feature of advisory committee meetings; (2) release publicly available briefing materials five to seven business days before the date of the advisory committee meeting, not, as is typically the case now, no later than two full business days before the meeting; and (3) reduce to zero, with rare exceptions, the number of voting members of advisory committees who are granted waivers to participate despite having an otherwise disqualifying financial interest.