A dozen consumer groups called on the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to more closely scrutinize the scientists on its advisory committees and exclude those with close industry ties.
The FDA should bar from committee meetings any doctors or researchers who have a direct financial relationship to companies that would be influenced by their recommendations, the advocacy groups said in a letter to the agency.
 
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The groups also asked the agency to limit the number of experts with industry ties to half of the panelists.
The FDA "must put an end to its promiscuous use of scientists with conflicts of interest and expand the public's opportunities to participate in the process," they told acting FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford.
The letter follows a panel meeting last month on painkiller safety that could pave the way for Merck & Co.'s withdrawn arthritis drug, Vioxx, to rejoin Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex and Bextra on the U.S. market. The drugs are safe enough to be sold despite heart risks, the experts concluded.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group that signed yesterday's letter, later said 10 of the 32 advisers who supported sales of the three pain relievers had consulted for the drugmakers in recent years.
The groups also recommended that the names of proposed panel members be made public 30 days before any scheduled meeting and that the public be allowed comment on the list beforehand.
