LawSquawker • Thomas & Wan's Blawg

Scary but not surprising... The Food and Drug Administration recently requested a report card on how it is doing. The result? The FDA is in serious disrepair with only itself and the pharmaceutical industry to blame. The Washington Post has the scoop on the report. This is the worst part: R. Alta Charo, a panel member and bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison "also cited 'a lack of collaboration among divisions, tensions [and] inappropriate management' at the FDA, saying officials who focus on safety issues are chronically underfunded compared with those who handle new-drug approvals." "Part of the problem, the report said, is that the money paid by industry to help fund FDA's regulators, under a 1992 law designed to speed up new drug reviews, cannot under the law be diverted to FDA's safety division, which suffers from chronic underfunding." Not sure what "inappropriate management" means...maybe that's a polite ter...

The medical malpractice crisis. Tort reform. Frivolous suits. Runaway juries. These are terms thrown around by politicians and talking heads. But what do they really mean? What is the truth behind the rhetoric? Tom Baker, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, is the author of an outstanding book The Medical Malpractice Myth . This is a must read for any policy maker, voter, doctor or patient. I would recommend it to insurance executives or defense lawyers, but they already know the truth behind the myth. The excerpt is a lengthy read, but it's very well-written.

The EPA is once again in Mission, Texas for more cleanup of the former Hayes-Sammons pesticide plant, an infamous Superfund site. In its latest report, the EPA describes the site as causing "unacceptable threats to human health and the environment." So, despite the fact our lawsuit has been stalled by the pesticide corporations and their lawyers, actions are taking place to remove the pollution. Going up against Goliath is always an uphill battle--at least we've got the government and truth on our side. The McAllen Monitor has the latest .

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