FDA Chief: Tobacco Rules Could Backfire

FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, answers questions on food safety during a newsmaker interview with the Associated Press, Tuesday, March 6, 2007, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. David Ake) (J. David Ake - AP)

_On food safety, von Eschenbach said the FDA was working to improve systems that can prevent outbreaks, enhance its ability to detect problems, trace them to their source and pre-empt the further distribution of contaminated products. A recent AP analysis found FDA food inspections fell off by nearly half between 2003 and 2006.

"I don't think you can inspect the problem away. I believe inspections are an important component of verification that processes that you put in place to prevent and eliminate the problem are working," von Eschenbach told AP.

_On food from cloned animals, the FDA chief said it's the agency's duty to tell consumers whether it's safe, but not necessarily to allay fears. The dairy industry worries cloning fears will turn people away from milk.

"Once we have defined that, how that gets implemented into our societal context, in terms of products and trade and those sorts of things, those are issues I think that go beyond FDA," he said.

_On drug safety, von Eschenbach rejected a wholesale refocusing of the agency's attention to the safety of drugs once they are on the market. Instead, he said, the FDA should emphasize safety throughout what he called the life cycle of a drug, from pre-approval throughout its time on the market.

"I don't think it is something we should view as simply FDA's shifting its priorities from one place to another place. I see it as a seamless continuum on a broad front," he said.

___

On the Net:

Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov