611 Big Pharma and Drug Safety

A recent report from the prestigious Institute of Medicine
indicates that the Food and Drug Administration is not doing enough
to protect Americans from medication dangers. In some cases, the
agency seems to pay more attention to the needs of pharmaceutical
manufacturers.
That makes it all the more alarming when we hear that these
companies have become corrupt. We talk with the controversial
whistleblower making this charge as well as a spokesman for the
industry and an objective observer. Have the regulators lost sight
of the public good?
Guests: Peter Rost, MD, former vice-president of Pfizer. Author of
Whistleblower: Confessions of a Health Care Hit Man. His blog is:
http://peterrost.blogspot.com/
Alan Goldhammer, PhD, associate vice-president of regulatory
affairs for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Raymond Woosley, MD, PhD, formerly Chairman of Pharmacology at
Georgetown University; formerly vice-president for Health Sciences
at the University of Arizona; currently president of the Critical
Path Institute, a nonprofit organization partnering with FDA and
industry to accelerate development of safe medical products, and
director of the Arizona Center for Research and Education on
Therapeutics.