An advocacy group is lambasting the FDA's advisory committees for being too obliging to new drug applications. The National Research Center for Women & Families says that the committees have recommended approvals in 79 percent of all cases between 1998 and 2005. The leaders of the group say that's a sign that the committees are too willing to do the drug companies' bidding. The FDA--which has been reviewing regs on who gets to serve and vote on these panels--limited itself to a bland statement that their final decisions are based on a "totality" of the information available on a therapy. It's doubtful that the critics' math would persuade many people in the drug development world, though, who can tell you quickly that getting a drug through to an FDA approval is no walk in the park.
- read the AP report on the group's results