There is still time to stop FDA, Inc.

So says Byron Richards of Truth in Wellness:

Last year’s Institute of Medicine report labeled FDA management as dysfunctional causing FDA reform to pick up momentum. To deflect public outrage, [bill] S1082 was created … in close consultation with the FDA and Big Pharma. As you might expect from such a meeting of the minds, the bill is really a Big Pharma-sponsored con job… Bill S1082 is a bill that helps fund the FDA with Big Pharma money…

Richards analyzes the potential legislation’s effect bluntly:

It is hard for anyone to comprehend that the agency that is supposed to be in charge of drug safety is about to become a drug company. It is astonishing that the FDA will now manage a full scale business activity that uses a “non profit” foundation as a shield to avoid international patent problems, protect proprietary rights of its commercial drug-development enterprise, and massively expands FDA regulatory powers to quickly remove anything from the market that is competition to its own products and licensing agreements.

Since the bill appears likely to pass, opponents like Richards are supporting the efforts of Sen. Chuck Grassley to amend S1082 to blunt Big Pharma’s influence.

Grassley is one of too few Washington politicians who have stood up and said the FDA’s relationship with Big Pharma is “too cozy” — and would become even cozier were this legislation to pass.