Aim for greater transparency in US regulatory agencies

Posted on 8 June 2009

Greater transparency among drug regulatory agencies is starting to be promoted in a serious way in the USA. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has created a Transparency Task Force to recommend how to make the FDA more open and transparent. Paul Bluementhal from the Sunlight Foundation writes that the process of review and approval for drugs and medical devices is, at the moment, largely secretive. Moreover the FDA has had serious difficulties in disclosing problems with medications, over-the-counter drugs and devices to the public with troublesome results. For example they failed to disclose that a widely prescribed heartburn drug was especially toxic to babies and that a diabetes medicine and a painkiller increased the risk of heart attacks.

Making the process more transparent would greatly affect thousands of corporations and the American public. This transparency effort may be important as most Americans rely on the FDA to provide accurate information as to whether a drug or device is not to be used, or what dangers may exist. An FDA that does not have the trust of consumers could lead to increased risks in health decisions and lead to profit losses for companies manufacturing drugs and devices. Transparency is essential to instil trust in this area and is instrumental to a healthy and consumer confident country.

Read the full article herehttp://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/06/02/fda-creates-transparency-task-force/