Contrary to what Getler and PBS would have you and the public believe — the idea that the FDA does independent objective premarket evaluations — the "FDA does not develop or test products; FDA experts review the results of laboratory, animal, and human clinical testing done by manufacturers" only.3
The lack of independent verification of drug companies' claims is a major problem, as fudging and manipulating research has become commonplace. Investigations have shown that most of the scientific misconduct occurs in the drug literature (compared to general biomedical literature).
Nearly 75 percent of retracted drug studies are attributed to scientific misconduct such as data falsification and fabrication. Imagine the potential for tragedy when a drug is based largely on pure fantasy or wishful thinking!
Vioxx and Avandia are but two examples of exceptionally dangerous drugs making it through the FDA's review process. Between them, these two drugs are responsible for more than 143,000 deaths.