Proof emerges: Bush hijacked FDA at expense of safety
We’ve heard for a while that politics trumps science for this administration. But today, proof emerged that it’s true.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (thank you, Rep. Henry Waxman) issued a report showing that the Bush administration has pulled out the stops to shield drug companies from liability for dangerous drugs, leaving patients out in the cold. Here we have clear documentation of how the White House hijacked an agency and forced it to undermine its own mission.
The report concluded:
In this case, however, the internal documents indicate that the Bush Administration weakened important drug safety regulations to shield manufacturers from liability. That is a serious abuse of the agency’s public health authorities.
What timing; the Bush administration has a pretty big Supreme Court argument next week, and this won’t help them very much. Brian Wolfman, director of Public Citizen’s legal team said:
Essentially, the White House maintains that victims should get nothing, no matter how negligent or irresponsible the company was in designing, testing, labeling or marketing its products. This effort to prevent injured citizens from using the courts and holding negligent companies’ accountable must be stopped.