The New York Times recently reported that "Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers..." (10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills Had Industry Ties, NYT, 2/25/2005).

If these 10 panelists were taken out of the voting, which would be expected if FDA policies on conflict of interest were adhered to (they weren't -- more on that below), then the committee would have voted to take both Bextra and Vioxx off the market (12 to 8 against Bextra and 14 to 8 against Vioxx).

Ninety-three percent (93%) of the time these 10 panelists voted in favor of the drugs, whereas the 22 other panelists favored the drugs in their votes only 56% of the time.

"Of the 30 votes cast by the 10 panel members on whether Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx should continue to be marketed, 28 favored the drugs. Among the 66 votes cast by the remaining 22 members of the panel, just 37 favored the drugs." -- NYT

It should be noted that the voting preferences of these 10 panelists did not influence the decision to keep Celebrex, marketed by Pfizer, on the market. That is, the vote would have been in favor of Celebrex even if these panelists were excluded from voting.

Financial ties to industry of FDA advisory committee members is not a new issue. A USA TODAY analysis of financial conflicts at 159 FDA advisory committee meetings from Jan. 1, 1998, through June 30, 2000 found:

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