The Wall Street Journal blog Pharmalot reports that 1/3 of the physicians and other experts sitting on FDA advisory panels reviewing medical devices from 2012 to 2014 have financial ties to the companies whose devices they are reviewing, see What Money? Financial Ties of FDA Device Advisers are Often Undisclosed. Nearly 10% of these experts were directly compensated by the specific companies whose products they were directly reviewing. Interestingly, the FDA disclosed only 1% of these financial ties.
One of the hardest things in the world is getting someone to understand whose paycheck is dependent upon them not understanding.
Here's the game: medical device companies capture the FDA by buying influence with these experts and secure FDA approval for their devices, which in turn serves as a defense to defective product lawsuits, often a complete defense. So at the front end it is possible for medical device manufacturers to buy their way out of any accountability or liability to individuals and families hurt be defective medical devices.
And so it goes. Remember money doesn't talk it swears.
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