Ever wonder what happened to Dr. David Graham, the principled and brave scientist, who testified a year ago in Senate hearings about the lack of oversight insofar as what passes for drug safety at the FDA?
Dr. Graham remains an associate director for science and medicine at the agency's drug safety office, and that's certainly good news. And, his courageous stand has been duplicated by other scientists who talk regularly with the Senate Finance Committee (who oversees the FDA).
As I expected, however, he contends the FDA remains compromised and virtually defenseless against another tragedy like Vioxx.
Even worse, the agency's new Drug Safety Oversight Board, Dr. Graham says, is little more than a "kangaroo court" and "window dressing" that's diverting attention from the right solutions.
During last year testimony, Dr. Graham named Meridia, Crestor, Accutane, Serevent and Bextra (aside from Vioxx) as drugs that put the lives of the public at risk. You can add three more groups of drugs to that list:
USA Today November 17, 2005