What Ails the FDA?

Testifying before a spellbound audience in a Senate hearing room this past November, scientist and whistle-blower David J. Graham charged that his employer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is incapable of protecting the public from dangerous prescription drugs. Graham, an epidemiologist who monitors drug safety, conducted a study that confirmed an increase in the risk of myocardial infarction among users of rofecoxib (Vioxx), Merck's blockbuster antiinflammatory medicine. When he informed his supervisors about his findings last summer, he said, they pressured him to change his conclusions because they were inconsistent with the FDA's position on the drug's safety. A . . .