FDA Chief Faces Wrath of Congress

April 22, 2008— -- Under the cloud of contaminated heparin deaths, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach received a rude welcome from Congress Tuesday, accused by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., of "carrying the water" for the Bush administration, "toe-dancing around the hard facts," and making promises that turn out to be nothing more than "hooey."

"Commissioner, I have no ill will towards you," Dingell said. "I have ill will of the most gross sort towards the fact that you come up here and defend a situation that is indefensible and that you are not soliciting the resources that you need to do your job to protect the American people the way the law says you should. And that you are tolerating an administration which is allowing this kind of situation to continue, because they are too damn tight to see to it that the American people have the funds that are necessary to protect them against wrongdoing in foreign countries."

Estimates suggest more than 80 percent of all active ingredients used by U.S. drug manufacturers come from abroad. But the FDA only inspects foreign drug plants about once every 13 years, compared to every two to three years for domestic plants, according to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO finds that China's drug plants are inspected once every 30 to 40 years.

FDA officials said Monday that as many as 81 deaths and hundreds of severe reactions among patients taking the blood thinner heparin have been traced to a man-made contaminant from China. Chinese officials disputed these claims, saying the contaminant is not the cause of the problems.

In light of the heparin situation, von Eschenbach told lawmakers at Tuesday's hearing of his plans to improve the FDA's system that currently inspects only about 10 to 20 of China's 700 registered drug firms per year.

He said the agency's response to growing challenges in a "rapidly and radically changing world" has not been adequate.

"In addition to addressing the need to increase our inspections, we also need to overhaul the entire system," von Eschenbach said.