Does FDA Stand for Fundie Dominated Administration?

Earlier this year, Ron Bailey looked at the FDA's decision to ignore the recommendation of its own expert panels and delay approval of over-the-counter status for "Plan B" emergency contraception (aka "the morning after pill"). A report released today by the Government Accountability Office confirms that the process FDA followed in that case was "unusual," and "not typical of the other 67 proposed prescription-to-OTC switch decisions made by the FDA" in the preceding decade. In short, the report confirms the conclusion most observers had already reached: That the denial was a political decision that required flouting the ordinary procedure, and the ordinary medical grounds, used to make these determinations. Kerry Howley took a long look at the forces that keep drugs stuck in the prescription vault back in our August issue.