USA Today editorial on FDA and pet products

[Karlin]

This is a must read for dog and cat owners:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/...-dru.html#more

During the process that took ProHeart 6 off the market, the drug's maker investigated and denounced a Food and Drug Administration scientist who gathered the damning data. And instead of protecting its scientist, the FDA booted her off the case and tried to have her criminally prosecuted.

It's a disturbing tale for anyone who relies on pharmaceutical companies and the FDA to ensure that medicines for animals and humans are safe, one that raises questions about the conduct of a major corporation and its federal regulator.

So many of these agencies have been gutted and turned into support systems for corporations and developers.

I encourage people to write their state representatives about your concern about what is happening in the FDA

[Daisy's Mom]

Very depressing. I'm a free market capitalist through and through, but what most of our major drug companies do these days should not be called capitalism, it should be called graft and corruption. IMO, the drug companies are one of the primary causes of the healthcare problem in the U.S. And their incomparable profits show that what they do is working for them. This is one industry that needs some sort of government regulation because they show that they will not operate ethically if left alone.

For an example, the minute the Medicare RX plan went through, they jacked up their prices on all the drugs older people tend to be on, so that people paid the exact same thing after as before. And they lobbied so hard for the plan with this scheme in mind that they had one Congressperson in tears. Sickening. I don't know how some people sleep at night.

I'll get of my soapbox now. (Keep in mind, I'm a Republican saying all this!)