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WASHINGTON (AP) - Outside experts with more than $50,000 in ties to drug and medical device companies regulated by the Food and Drug Administration would be barred from advising the agency under draft guidelines issued Wednesday.
The conflict-of-interest guidelines would allow scientific experts who accept less than $50,000 in corporate grants, contracts and consulting fees — or hold less than that amount in company stock — to still serve on the FDA's advisory committees. But that could happen only if the need for their services outweighed the potential conflict, and only if they were nonvoting members, according to the draft.
The agency relies on its panels of outside experts for recommendations on drugs, vaccines and devices. It wasn't immediately clear how many advisers would be barred, but Randall Lutter, the FDA's acting deputy commissioner for policy, told reporters it was a "significant number."
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