WASHINGTON — Dr. David J. Graham, the Food and Drug Administration scientist who publicly criticized the agency's approach to drug safety during a Senate hearing last week, said Wednesday that he was facing pressure to transfer to a different job in the FDA -- a move he said was in retaliation for his remarks.
"What they want to do is move me out of drug safety into the office of the commissioner, where I will basically be exiled and won't be able to do drug research," Graham said in an interview.
"It's a reprisal."
Graham's latest comments intensified the standoff between the career scientist and the agency where he has worked , largely in anonymity, for the last 20 years.
The FDA had no immediate response.
Graham was the star witness at a Senate hearing Nov. 18 into the prescription painkiller Vioxx. Its manufacturer, Merck & Co., pulled the drug from the market after research confirmed an increased risk of heart attack among patients taking the medication. Graham testified that the FDA ignored his warnings about the drug and tried to suppress the results of his investigations.
He also asserted that the agency had abandoned its watchdog role in favor of a cozy relationship with the pharmaceutical industry and that the public could no longer expect to be protected from potentially hazardous medications. He identified five drugs that remain on the market despite potentially severe side effects: Crestor, for cholesterol; Meridia, for weight loss; Accutane, for acne; Bextra, for pain; and Serevent, for asthma.
FDA officials have disputed Graham's assertions, saying the agency he described seemed nothing like the organization they know. They dismissed his estimates that Vioxx may have contributed to thousands of premature deaths, and they said the drugs he criticized were safe when used properly.
Graham is represented by lawyers from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit public interest group that defends whistle-blowers.
"We are hoping to prevent Dr. Graham's exile before it becomes a fait accompli," said Tom Devine, the group's legal director.
"It is an inexcusable abuse of power that the FDA would sideline [this] scientist."
Devine said his organization had received anonymous calls, from FDA phone numbers, accusing Graham of scientific misconduct. On Wednesday, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) asked the Health and Human Services inspector general's office to investigate whether the agency was misusing government resources by trying to tarnish an in-house critic.
