Los Angeles Times Examines How FDA Responded to Pressure to Speed Approval Process for Antiretroviral Drugs

The Los Angeles Times on Saturday examined how FDA "responded to pressures from patient advocacy groups, private industry and Congress" in the 1990s by "streamlining the way" it approved new antiretroviral drugs and other medicines. Critics view the "swifter approval" of antiretroviral drugs "as a precedent seized on by private industry to achieve a profit-oriented agenda of getting drugs into the marketplace with fewer hurdles," according to the Times. The change in operations has led critics to allege that the agency "has too often allowed unsafe drugs to reach the market," the Times reports. However, others say such comments are "off the mark" and that FDA "was responding to legitimate public demand for the benefits of pharmaceutical innovations for other illnesses," the Times reports. FDA officials say they remain "vigilant" in protecting the public from "unsafe drugs," according to the Times (Peterson, Los Angeles Times, 11/20). The complete article is available online.

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