Report: FDA conflict-of-interest rules too restrictive

The Washington Times: "The conflict-of-interest policies in the medical profession are coming under fire as too stringent and as impeding medical progress, a claim the Food and Drug Administration dismisses as a misunderstanding of its rules. A report published last week by the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute … said conflict-of-interest rules have too many restrictions that prevent informed and knowledgeable people from sitting on medical school faculty and panels that rule on drug licensing," but the Food and Drug Administration countered that its rules are being misinterpreted.

The report's author, NYU law professor Richard Epstein argued that disclosures of pharmaceutical industry payments required by the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, and Harvard Medical School "are enough to keep people from even applying" to be on review panels (Entzminger, 11/3).