The FDA’s reputation with the General Public is under assault.

A new Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll reveals that the majority of U.S. adults think the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) most important function is to ensure the safety and efficacy of new prescription drugs. However, over the past two years, the public has become increasingly skeptical about the agency’s ability to meet that mission, with seven in 10 adults giving the FDA a negative rating. A vast majority of adults are concerned about the agency’s ability to make independent decisions that will ensure public access to safe and effective drugs. In addition, large majorities across party lines say the FDA’s decisions are influenced by politics rather than medical science. All of this suggests the FDA is facing an uphill battle in the court of public opinion.

These are some of the results of a Harris Interactive online survey of 2,371 U.S. adults conducted between May 12 and 16, 2006 for The Wall Street Journal Online’s Health Industry Edition.

According to the poll, most adults say they are concerned about the FDA’s ability to make independent decisions that will ensure that patients have access to safe and effective medicines (80%), and their ability to effectively communicate safety concerns about prescription drugs to doctors and the public (76%).

FDA job approval and importance of their functions

A majority of adults have a negative view of the job the FDA is doing on:

Ensuring that truly innovative prescription drugs come to market more quickly (70%), with 21 percent of adults saying it is the most important function for the FDA to focus on.

In 2004, the numbers were reversed: then, 56% felt the FDA did a good or excellent job, while 37% felt the agency did a fair or poor job in this regard.

Decisions concerning which brand name prescription drugs can be marketed as generics (63%), with seven percent of adults saying it is the most important function for the FDA to focus on.

Decisions about which drugs can be marketed over-the-counter without a prescription (62%), with five percent of adults saying it is the most important function for the FDA to focus on.

Ensuring the safety as well as the efficacy of new prescription drugs (58%), with 58 percent of adults saying it is the most important function for the FDA to focus on.

Access to prescription drugs

For large majorities of adults, it is important that people like them have access to the following:

Complete information about the safety issues associated with prescription drugs (94%)

Affordable prescription drugs even if they aren’t the newest ones available (93%)

New, experimental drugs whose efficacy and safety aren’t proven, but that may offer a new treatment choice for patients who otherwise are out of options (72%)

New and better drugs, no matter what they might cost (71%)

In the name of political science

The poll also found that 82% of adults feel the FDA’s decisions are influenced by politics rather than medical science. People feel this way regardless of their party affiliation, even though Republicans (77%) are slightly less apt than Democrats (87%) and Independents (88%) to feel that FDA decisions are influenced by politics rather than medical science.

Perceptions of FDA advisory committees

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