Congressman: ‘Citizens Can No Longer Trust’ FDA

-Wall Street Journal

04/30/2008 - The FDA got another tongue lashing from Rep. John Dingell yesterday, who seems frustrated that the agency isn’t clamoring for more money to inspect foreign manufacturing plants.

“Our citizens can no longer trust that their food, drugs or medical devices are safe when the FDA says they are,” Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, said at a hearing on the recent spate of deaths tied to contaminated heparin, the WSJ reports.

The FDA has said the blood thinner was contaminated in China. The agency currently spends about $10 million a year inspecting foreign plants, but it would take about $250 million to do regular inspections at the ever-growing number of foreign facilities that make ingredients for the U.S. market. Dingell and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), both of whom sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, are backing a bill that would give the agency lots more money for foreign inspections.

Dingell lectured FDA commish Andrew Von Eschenbach last week for not asking for more money. Yesterday, Stupak took a similar line with Janet Woodcock, who runs the agency’s center for drug evaluation and research.

“The FDA asked for $9 million for 2009, and next year you go to a whopping $11 million,” Stupak said, the Chicago Tribune reports. “That’s not even a drop in the bucket.”