Pharmaceutical companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars in order to gain FDA approval for their products. A biologist at the FDA headquarters makes between $38 and $86 thousand. The diffeence between these two sums is emormous; thus, it would not be surprising if the FDA was ripe with corruption.
Sure enough, the New York Times reports that former FDA chief Lester Crawford is under criminal investigation for financial improprieties. In the article (“Ex-head of FDA faces Criminal Inquiry“), it was reported that:
“…financial disclosure forms released by the Department of Health and Human Services showed that in 2004 either Dr. Crawford or his wife, Catherine, had sold shares in companies regulated by the agency when he was its deputy commissioner and acting commissioner. He has since joined a Washington lobbying firm, Policy Directions Inc.”
More evidence that the FDA’s authority needs to be rolled back.