The FDA’s pivot from ad comms to ‘expert’ panels is bad medicine

The FDA’s pivot from ad comms to ‘expert’ panels is bad medicine

Americans trust the Food and Drug Administration to make life-and-death decisions in the open. Yet in recent months, the agency has increasingly convened ad-hoc “expert panels” that meet without Federal Register notice, formal transcripts, standard conflict of interest reviews, or recorded votes. These expert panels have been tapped to help reshape policy on talc safety, infant formula, hormone replacement, and antidepressant therapy — without t…