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Saturday, February 27, 2016

The FDA Now Officially Belongs to Big Pharma

Robert Califf's ties to Big Pharma run deep and the Obama nominee just sailed through the U.S. Senate.

It is hard to believe only four senators opposed the confirmation of Robert Califf, who was approved today as the next FDA commissioner. Vocal opponent Bernie Sanders condemned the vote from the campaign trail. But where was Dick Durbin? Where were all the lawmakers who say they care about industry and Wall Street profiteers making money at the expense of public health?

Califf, chancellor of clinical and translational research at Duke University until recently, received money from 23 drug companies including the giants like Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Merck, Schering Plough and GSK according to a disclosure statement on the website of Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Not merely receiving research funds, Califf also served as a high level Pharma officer, say press reports. Medscape, the medical website, discloses that Califf “served as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant or trustee for Genentech.” Portola Pharmaceuticals says Califf served on its board of directors until leaving for the FDA.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It always belonged to the elites

Concerned Retiree said...

I have been saying this for twenty years. Why else is there a 10 year period before generic can be sold of a new medication? Why has there been medications that work in other countries but not allowed in the US? AMA, FDA and big Pharma has restricted cures for illnesses so they can get more money in kickbacks from more maintenance drugs. That is called money greases the wheel. This is called CS, common sense.

Anonymous said...

Shop other countries for your prescriptions. Supply and demand will conquer it.