Graham stated:
FDA is inherently biased in favor of the pharmaceutical industry. It views industry as its client, whose interests it must represent and advance. It views its primary mission as approving as many drugs as it can, regardless of whether the drugs are safe or needed. . . . The pro-industry bias leads to an environment where FDA tends to see things from industry’s perspective. Many are the advisory committee meetings where the drug company presentation and the FDA presentation are virtually super-imposable. It makes you wonder who wrote the presentations. . . . Safety isn’t on the radar screen regardless of what FDA officialdom would have you believe. Scientifically, FDA uses statistics in a biased manner that favors industry at the expense of patient safety. You see, when FDA reviews a new drug, it assumes that the drug is safe, and it facetiously asks the company to prove that it’s not safe. Of course, there is no incentive for a company to prove that their drug is not safe because then FDA might not approve it. So, with a nod and a wink, drug companies jump through very low hoops that FDA sets up for safety, and the public pays in two ways—with their money and their lives . . . . What has emerged is a lethal triangle involving FDA, the pharmaceutical industry and Congress. Pharmaceutical money funds FDA and exerts great influence with Congress. FDA allows deadly drugs onto the market and Congress pretends that nothing is the matter.
