Comments on: What Recession? Big Bonuses For FDA Brass

By: carrol

carrol — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:51:56 +0000

No wonder the USA is in a mess. This is a very good example why the poor will remain poor and the rich will get richer. The so called earned bonus is just a shame and a scandle.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:56:20 +0000

If there are smart and dedicated people at the FDA, I have not met them. The control exerted upon them by the Administration and their entwined relationship with Pharma makes even the hidden smart ones buckle to political pressure every time. I have seen Dr. Thomas Laughren yawning and staring at his place mat, especially during public testimony, more times than I care to count. The agency is a wreck and its dysfunction has caused many deaths. Many of my friends, and I myself, have lost those most precious to us. I can only pray that a new president will actually pay attention and not have Pharma execs as buddies.

By: Ima Misfit

Ima Misfit — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:48:57 +0000

I agree that there are many very smart and dedicated men and women at the FDA that do more than what should be expected of them. The budget they have to work with is a joke. But when will the administrators and political apointees tell us the truth about the unsafe conditions within the food and drug distribution system, and when will they start working on building an FDA that works?

By: Dr. Sal Giorgianni

Dr. Sal Giorgianni — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:34:34 +0000

I’m not sure if criticizing FDA for putting an aggressive professional staff retention policy and program in place is very useful. In the private sector these dedicated men and women would, and can, command much higher salaries, with much higher bonuses and stock incentives and in much better, less “public” environments. Many of the folks who work at FDA as career staffers do it because they believe the work is that important and they are idealists.

Yes, there are problems with what goes on in FDA, but there are also many complexities to addressing these problems. One of the potential solutions is not to lose talented people to the private sector. So I will certainly exercise my right to be critical of much that goes on there but doing everything that can reasonably be done to hold on to people with experience is not one of the things I would be inclined to criticize.

By: Ima Misfit

Ima Misfit — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:04:47 +0000

Nobody is more critical of the FDA than I am on the American Fraud blog - http://americanfraud.wordpress.com/

Nevertheless, I don’t have a problem with the size of the salaries and bonuses for top positions at the FDA. My problem is that the executives receiving these bonuses are incompetent boobs who are incapable of admitting the depth of the antiquated business model they follow, and that the FDA is a dysfunctional and corrupt organization.

I’d support much bigger bonuese, if they went to qualified FDA executives who were capable of protecting our food and drug supply.