Conflict of Interest, Credibility, and Advisory Committee Meetings: A Pilot Study. K. A. McComas and L. M. Simone, University of Maryland
Widespread access to knowledge and expertise is vital for a society concerned with making risk-based decisions on a solid foundation of scientific evidence. Among techniques that U.S. regulatory agencies frequently use to seek input and expertise are federal advisory committee meetings. Regulatory agencies have recently come under fire, however, for having experts with real or potential conflicts of interest participate on their panels. At issue is whether these conflicts of interest unduly influence committee members to support or cast votes for outcomes differently than if the conflict were not present. This paper presents the results of a pilot study investigating attitudes toward one federal agency’s conflict of interest procedures. Particularly, it examines how conflicts of interest of experts participating on U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committees influence the perceived credibility of the committee meeting process. Immediately following one FDA advisory committee meeting, a survey containing both closed and open-ended questions was mailed to 47 individuals who participated or registered to participate in the open public hearing; 23 questionnaires were returned, yielding a 52% adjusted response rate. Results show that most respondents agreed that learning of advisory committee members’ conflicts of interest influenced how credible they perceived the advisory committee meeting. Still, most respondents viewed the meetings as credible. Only one respondent was familiar with the waiver process that the FDA uses to evaluate committee members’ conflicts of interest. Finally, a majority of respondents indicated they were satisfied with advisory committee meetings as a way of involving people like them in FDA policy making. The results also include an analysis of the open-ended responses providing insight into the reasoning behind respondents’ beliefs. The Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, a University of Maryland/U.S. FDA collaborative research institute, provided funding for this research.
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