Monday, March 5, 2012

From GoozNews: Inside Scoop on Medical Device Industry Lobbying

Thanks to Merrill Goozner, we have a handy summary:
http://gooznews.com/?p=3680
--of the current efforts of the medical device industry to lobby Congress to further loosen already-loose standards for FDA approval of potentially dangerous medical devices.

As I have posted about several times, most recently:
http://brodyhooked.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-on-device-industry-from-aslme-coi.html
--the device industry boldly launched a frontal pre-emptive strike against a recent report from the Institute of Medicine that revealed how inadequate patient protection currently is under existing rules, and is trying to get even those rules watered down. This from an industry that has increased its profits between 2009 and 2010 by 57 percent.

As I reported also some time back, when the device industry lobbies Congress, their trump card seems to be--either let us rush potentially dangerous devices to market with minimal FDA oversight, or we'll decide that the business climate in the US is unfriendly to our industry and take well-paying jobs overseas. Fascinating that our elected representatives, when their palms are sufficiently greased, cave to that sort of blackmail.

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