Bob Goldberg’s bark is as sharp as his bite as is illustrated below:
And the Award for Least Curious Journalist Goes To …
Take your pick when it comes to inconsistency on following the so-called conflict of interest issue as it pertains to the FDA. Here’s how it works. If you have “ties” to industry by virtue of talking to companies for nine months or if your wife has ties to a big drug company or if you work for the FDA and your kid babysits for someone who works for a big drug company you are conflicted and therefore should not be allowed to work for the FDA or any issue coming before the FDA according to Charles Grassley and Maurice Hinchey or those eager reporters who define conflict of interest in similar terms. But what if you work at the FDA and happen to also have part ownership in a company that markets products that compete with a drug that you happen to review? No problem! That is, unless you are the company that raises an objection about a possible conflict and then of course you are accused, as was Wyeth, of “targeting” an FDA reviewer of animal medicines. Then the mainstream media (MSM) is all over the issue as yet another example of how big drug companies — who get but 8 percent of all the drugs they develop approved — manhandle the FDA.
To sum up: it’s a conflict and worth reporting if you consulted for a drug company or had lunch with a drug company representative or someone from a drug company attended your kid’s Bar Mitzvah. But if you run business that sells products in direct competition with those you are reviewing, that’s ok because the direct competition is a BIG DRUG COMPANY.
An invitation to babysit for any MSM journalist who can explain their inconsistency on this one or at least has the guts to respond to me at bobgoldberg@yahoo.com
