Conflict of Interest and FDA’s Revolving Door
[Thursday, July 11, 2019] Should FDA officials be restricted in what jobs they can pursue after leaving office? A few days after leaving the FDA, the last Commissioner Scott Gottlieb joined the same venture firm he left to join FDA. Then a few weeks later he joined the Board of Pfizer. In that he joined the long tradition of FDA’s former commissioners pursuing financially lucrative opportunities related to their jobs after leaving the Agency. FDA’s senior leadership always ends up working for the very industry they regulated when in office and most such jobs are financially very rewarding, for them. A Board seat in Pfizer could pay high six-figure salaries for a part-time job. Senior ex-FDA officials frequently join several Boards to milk their name recognition and former title. And this practice is not limited to the FDA Commissioners and senior officials but practically every FDA employee. Former FDA employees are highly sought by the industry as employees and consultants for their “inside-FDA” experience. Companies don’t hire former FDA officials for the goodness of their hearts but to get access to private information that FDA officials are privy to. Former employees carry a wealth of proprietary information about the inner workings of the FDA, the review trends, personal and professional preferences of their former colleagues, and the likely competition to their new organizations. Former FDA officials also likely have personal relationships with their ex-colleagues that can be exploited for the benefit of their new employers. It is fair to ask if such practice is ethical, if not illegal. FDA has a written code of conduct for its employees that, in principle, restricts improper interactions after leaving the Agency. There have been no reports of former FDA employees accused of breaking the code of conduct. There also has been no analysis of any special benefits former FDA employees brought to their new employers. A former FDA official working for the very companies they regulated once, raises the obvious questions about the integrity of the trust between the regulated and the regulators. However, so far there is no political will or public outcry to curtail the practice. Perhaps we have become so used to the practice that it has become just a part of the industry-FDA ecosystem where industry hires former regulators to understand the current regulators, in a perpetual revolving door for regulatory professionals to market their intangible assets. |
|