Consumer Law

How Scary Can the FDA Get???

By Andy Hoffman

We thought we had heard it all when we told you that a group of FDA scientists had written a letter to Congress several months ago, pleading for intervention due to ?serious misconduct? within the agency.

Then the scientists wrote a similar letter to the Obama transition team.  Well, hold onto something sturdy, civil justice fans, because this terrible plot gets a lot thicker. 

Now the same scientists have written a letter to President Obama, claiming that FDA officials may be retaliating against their letter-writing?by making them targets of a criminal investigation(!).

?It has been brought to our attention that F.D.A. management may have just recently ordered the F.D.A. Office of Criminal Investigations (O.C.I.) to investigate us rather than the managers who have engaged in wrongdoing!? states the letter, which was provided to the New York Times.

The FDA won?t deny this is happening (although it won?t confirm either.)

Meanwhile, in other scary FDA news, it is now being reported that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCP) contains high levels of mercury, something that is ?toxic in all its forms? (!). HFCP has replaced sugar as a common sweetener in processed foods and is found in just about everything - breads, cereals, yogurts, candy, soups, ketchup, salad dressing, and on and on.  And the FDA has known about it for four years and said nothing!

Needless to say, here?s hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will consider this ever-growing chorus of FDA dysfunction before it renders its decision in Wyeth v. Levine and other so-called ?preemption? cases that could effectively give companies that pass FDA ?muster? complete immunity from suit.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on January 28, 2009 (boomark / email).