The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) advisory committee on cardiovascular and renal drugs will be chaired by and dominated by industry-connected scientists when it meets today to evaluate draft labeling guidance for antihypertensive drugs. CSPI has urged the FDA to postpone the meeting to take the time to identify panelists who are free of conflicts of interest, and who could bring balance to the panel.
A balanced panel would at least have some members with expertise on how hypertension can be treated with diet and lifestyle changes, according to CSPI.
“American hospitals and medical school faculties are filled with experts on preventing and treating high blood pressure, and it is simply not the case that all of them have financial relationships with drug makers,� said Merrill Goozner, director of the Integrity in Science Project at CSPI. “If the FDA can’t find any to serve on this particular panel, we stand ready to help them identify some.�
CSPI also told the agency that its draft labeling guidance ignores the government’s own advice on the importance of lifestyle changes on lowering blood pressure, misrepresents the findings of the major government-funded science on hypertension, and would permit drug companies to make claims on drug labels that have not been reviewed by FDA. CSPI says that the labeling guidance would open the door for labeling abuse by letting drug companies tout the advantage of one drug over another without much evidence, and would squander and opportunity to educate Americans about the importance of diet and lifestyle in treating hypertension.
“The FDA acts as if it is much more concerned with pampering the pharmaceutical industry than it is preventing disease through better diets,� said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “The best science on blood pressure shows that adoption of healthy lifestyles, including losing weight and reducing sodium, is indispensable to reducing blood pressure. Yet FDA does very little to help Americans make those changes.�