Philip-Morris Smoking over Conflicts of Interest on FDA Tobacco Panel
by GoozNews ~ 30 Apr 2010 08:21am
I’m for eliminating advisers with conflicts of interest from FDA advisory panels. I spent five years of my professional life advocating for that position. But finding myself in bed with the tobacco industry is a tad uncomfortable. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Altria’s Philip Morris subsidiary is objecting to four members of the FDA’s new tobacco advisory panel because they served as expert witnesses for plaintiffs who filed suit against the tobacco industry. Jonathan Samet at the University of Southern California, who chairs the committee, also advises companies that make smoking cessation products.
Samet told the paper that his $300-per-hour expert witness fees went to Johns Hopkins where he worked at the time. That should be irrelevant to the FDA. His salary and standing at the university was undoubtedly influenced by his extracurricula activities. However, I suspect that conflict is far enough in the past that it wouldn’t require a conflict-of-interest waiver. But the advisory role with tobacco cessation product makers is more troubling. If that is current or within the past 12 months, there’s reasonable cause to exclude Samet from the committee, or, if someone with comparable expertise can’t be found, at least to make him step down as chair.
mgoozner’s blog
L
April 30th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
MERRILL GOOZNER spent more than 25 years in the news business as a foreign correspondent, economics writer and investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune and other publications. He reported from over a dozen countries while posted in Chicago, Tokyo, New York and Washington. His jobs included Chief Asia Correspondent (1991-95), New York Financial Correspondent (1996-1998) and Chief Economics Correspondent (1998-2000).
From December 2003 to March 2009, he directed the Integrity in Science project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.