Longtime Food and Drug Administration epidemiologist Dr. David Graham blew the whistle on his own agency in 2004 after becoming ever more convinced that the FDA had climbed into the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry.
He had been cautioned by his superiors that the way to advancement was not by finding fault with harmful, but highly profitable drugs. Already in his career he had taken part in having quite a number of such medicines jerked from the market.
Examples were Warner-Lambert's Rezulin, Wyeth's Fen-Phen and Redux, and Abbott Laboratories' Omniflox.
Things had gotten out of hand during the pro-business, anything-goes era of the George W. Bush administration, and Dr. Graham went so far as to suggest that in the present climate, the FDA was unable to protect Americans from the unfortunate side effects of various medical drugs.
The medicine that occasioned his whistle blowing was the pain medicine Vioxx, use of which had been associated with heart attacks and strokes.
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