December 7, 2011 is a day that will live in regulatory infamy. That’s when Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius overruled the FDA decision on the over-the-counter status of emergency contraception.
By reversing an FDA decision, the Secretary set a dangerous precedent for all-comers to lobby Congress, the HHS and the White House on any and all FDA decisions—directly inserting politics into what must be a scientifically driven process.
On December 13, 2011, Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and a dozen other Senate Democrats asked the Obama administration to produce scientific justification for its decision to block girls 16 and younger from buying the emergency contraceptive Plan B over the counter.
In a letter to U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Tuesday, the 14 lawmakers said they wanted "medical and scientific evidence" behind Sebelius's unprecedented decision to overrule the Food and Drug Administration and block younger teenagers from buying the so-called "morning after pill" without a prescription.
Senator Murray also called for a Senate hearing on the topic. She asked the Secretary to testify in front of a Senate committee to explain her scientific views on the matter. Senator Murray stated, “I want to know what the scientific evidence is that the secretary made this decision on in overriding the FDA … Pharmaceutical companies here in this country make some very expensive decisions, and they need to know that the FDA is going to base a decision based on science.”
The hearing hasn’t happened yet.
Will it happen now that the election is over?
It should. And the hearing should broaden its scope to address the ability of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to reverse FDA decisions and whether the FDA Commissioner should serve a congressionally mandated six-year term in order to ensure the position is “above” the political fray – similar to that of the Director of the FBI—and then approved by the Senate.
Let the person chosen as FDA Commissioner serve as free of the political current as possible.
And a Senate hearing would be a good place to start.
