For opposing the use of birth control pills made by Bayer, a consumer advocate has lost his voting power on a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel.

 

Sid Wolfe, head the Public Citizen Health Research Group, was a full member of the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee until FDA officials stripped him of his ability to vote just before an upcoming review of Yaz and Yasmin, two of Bayer’s most popular pregnancy-control medications.

 

The FDA cited “intellectual conflict of interest” for its decision regarding Wolfe, whose group publicly warned women not to use the pills. Concerns have been raised about the linkage between blood clots and birth control pills, like Bayer’s, containing a hormone called drospirenone.

 

Bayer is being sued by thousands of who became ill or died as a result of taking the pills. Ed Silverman at the pharmaceutical industry blog, Pharmalot, says newly unsealed documents from the litigation reveal that former FDA commissioner David Kessler wrote “a scathing expert opinion” accusing the drugmaker of withholding safety information regarding its pills from regulators.

-David Wallechinsky

 

FDA Pulls Wolfe Off Panel Over ‘Intellectual’ Conflict (by Ed Silverman, Pharmalot)