Fda On The Brink

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach testifies before Congress earlier this year. A study has concluded that his agency is so understaffed and underfunded that it risks collapse.

Image: Brendan Smialowski/The New York Times/Redux

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You know something is seriously amiss when industry scientists, consumer groups, and a bipartisan phalanx of senior government officials past and present call for infusions of cash to bolster a federal watchdog agency.

in danger of melting down.

Businesses that create and sell F.D.A.-overseen products, from peanut oil to neuropharmaceuticals, are well aware that the F.D.A. is understaffed, underfunded, and generally overwhelmed.

The public is catching on too, after recent scandals and missteps: the Vioxx recall, for one, and the clumsy handling of last year's E. coli outbreak from bagged spinach. Last year, only 36 percent of Americans said they had confidence in the F.D.A., down from 80 percent in the 1970s, according to a Harris interactive poll.

The latest report was presented last week by a subcommittee of the F.D.A. Science Board—an advisory panel of scientists and industry experts—and was ordered by F.D.A. commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach. "F.D.A. Science and Mission at Risk" compiles information gathered during a yearlong investigation overseen by a panel of top scientists, pharma executives and researchers, and senior U.S. officials from such agencies as the National Institutes of Health.

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