Food And Drug Administration U S

The top staff regulators who oversaw the approval of new drugs in this country objected to the Bush administration's drive to shield drug makers from being sued, according to internal documents released Wednesday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The regulators said the White House and top administration officials were operating under the "false assumption" that warning labels on new drugs were adequate and up-to-date.

Federal regulators set a safety threshold Friday for the industrial chemical melamine that is greater than the amount of contamination found so far in U.S.-made infant formula. Food and Drug Administration officials set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical isn't present. They insisted the formulas were safe. The setting of the standard comes days after FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S.

Restaurants are being told to list calorie counts on their menus. Schools are banning bake sales, and cities are outlawing new fast-food restaurants in some neighborhoods. State and local governments, concerned about the growing cost of obesity and diabetes and the ever-higher cost of healthcare, are acting more like food police. And more regulations may be ahead.

Despite calls from the incoming Obama administration to bolster the embattled Food and Drug Administration, the agency is unlikely to see major reform soon as bigger problems with higher profiles once again shoulder aside food safety in the competition for resources.

2006 was destined to be the year Warren Ratcliffe lost his desperate race to survive AIDS, and the year Mark McClelland appeared, finally, poised to win his. The two Bay Area men were among an estimated 40,000 Americans whose illness could not be controlled by modern HIV drugs because they'd developed a bedeviling resistance to them.

Pharmaceutical companies have agreed to pay millions in new fees to help federal health officials step up the review of drug commercials before they are aired on television, the industry and government said Thursday. Under the five-year plan, drug makers will pay the Food and Drug Administration a one-time fee plus additional charges for each commercial submitted. The fees, which will bring in about $6.

Former FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford's sentencing on charges he lied about his stock holdings was delayed over questions about sentencing guidelines. The stocks were in food, beverage and medical device companies that Crawford regulated while head of the Food and Drug Administration. Sentencing was rescheduled for Feb. 27.

A bipartisan group of congressional leaders is examining the Food and Drug Administration's contract awards to a company that has paid consulting fees and salary to the husband of a senior agency official. In a letter delivered Tuesday to the FDA, the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said the inquiry would focus on contracts awarded to Platinum Solutions Inc., of Reston, Va.

The Food and Drug Administration pledged Tuesday to make major changes in the nation's drug safety system, responding to a blue-ribbon panel that last fall found the agency's priorities skewed toward approving new medications without adequate follow-up to identify rare but risky side effects. FDA Commissioner Andrew C.

A judge sentenced former Food and Drug Administration chief Lester M. Crawford to three years' supervised probation with fines of almost $90,000 for lying about stocks he owned in companies regulated by his agency. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson also ordered Crawford to perform 50 hours of community service. Crawford, 69, pleaded guilty in October.