FDA Stent Experts Have Financial Ties to J&J, Rivals

[Target_For_Exterm]

"Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Six physicians with financial ties to Johnson & Johnson and other heart-device makers will be advising U.S. regulators whether to restrict the use of some products because of potentially lethal side effects.

The doctors will serve this week on a Food and Drug Administration panel of experts in Washington reviewing blood clots linked to stents, tiny devices that prop open arteries. The panel members, listed on an FDA Web site Nov. 22, will include Robert Harrington, who runs a Duke University research institute funded by stent makers J&J and Boston Scientific Corp.

To allow the doctors to participate in the review, the FDA is waiving rules that bar panelists in matters affecting companies in which the experts have stock ownership or consulting contracts. Regulators say expert researchers often consult for makers of products under review. Agency critics, including Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, say only advisers without financial conflicts should be chosen.

``I could think of 100 people who could qualify,'' said Herman Gold, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a Harvard Medical School associate professor. ``The FDA has been asleep at the switch with regard to the safety'' of stents, Gold said in a Nov. 28 interview."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aC0N5sNeh6G4&refer=us

Medicine in the US is in the crapper. It's all about $$$, and human life means nothing.