Us House Moves to End Conflicts for FDA Advisers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists with industry ties that may pose a conflict of interest would be prohibited from serving on U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committees under a measure the U.S. House of Representatives passed on Wednesday.

The FDA often draws advice from panels of outside experts on whether to approve new drugs or medical devices, or on general policy issues.

The financial relationships between the FDA advisers and drug makers gained attention amid concerns about risks of heart damage from painkillers such as Merck & Co. Inc.'s recalled drug Vioxx. Ten of 32 advisers who met in February and supported future sales of Vioxx and pain relievers Celebrex and Bextra had acted as paid consultants for the drug makers in recent years, a consumer group found.

The House voted 218-210 on Wednesday to stop the FDA from spending any money on granting waivers of conflict-of-interest rules for committee members. The measure was an amendment to legislation appropriating funds for the FDA, and it would have to be adopted by the Senate before it could become law.

A ban on spending funds for conflict-of-interest waivers would effectively end the practice of letting scientists serve on panels if they have ties to the drugs or devices in question, said Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat.

"Recent FDA actions have created serious doubts about whether committee members are serving only the public interest and, as a result, industry biases now taint many advisory panel decisions. Today, we took a giant step forward to squash those doubts," Hinchey said.

But Rep. Tom Latham, an Iowa Republican, said during a House debate that ending the waivers would "cripple" the advisory committee process by "making it impossible to recruit the appropriate level of scientific expertise."

"The conflict-of-interest waivers exist so that the most knowledgeable scientists, the ones you would want to consult if your own family was ill, can advise government agencies. These top scientists are few in number and very specialized. Most of them have consulted for industry at some point in their careers," Latham said.