Scott Gottlieb jumps from top FDA regulator to big bucks with Pfizer
Here we are in the middle of a BigPharma crisis — with people dying of opioid addiction, prices on pharmaceuticals skyrocketing, Congress raking in BigPharma campaign money and one-sixth of the American public taking useless and dangerous antidepressants — and Scott Gottlieb, who served less than two years as FDA Commissioner and who resigned because he “wanted to spend more time with his family” has, predictably, two months later, passed through the “bigpharma revolving door” and joined Pfizer’s Board of Directors. He’ll now make the really big bucks and help the drugmaker speed new drugs through FDA approvals in the “good old boy” network.
Elizabeth Warren, one of the Democrats running for president, has called for him to resign. How about just making it illegal for the director of a federal regulatory agency to jump ship to a regulated industry or vice-versa? One of the perks of FDA employment, for example, is that drug companies often hire FDA staffers who approve their drugs.
Gottlieb will make a minimum of $335,000 a year if last year’s salaries hold, probably much more for his prize stash of FDA intelligence and inside information. Time to stop this stupidity and corruption! Block the revolving door and vote against anybody who takes big money from BigPharma!
