Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa continues to seek a response from the Food and Drug Administration to a letter he sent to the agency Jan. 31 about the treatment of a group of employees who raised concern about certain medical devices. Grassley and Commissioner Margaret Hamburg talked on May 24, and she said the FDA expected to respond in two weeks. Later, FDA staff told Grassley’s office to expect further delays because the response is under review by an Administration official, whom they wouldn’t identify further. Grassley made the following comment on the status.
“After four months of pushing on our end, at last, the FDA commissioner herself indicated that an FDA response was on the way. Then the FDA abruptly switched gears and said an unnamed official in the Administration is reviewing the response. That leaves the response in limbo. The FDA staff wouldn’t give any more details. This puts us back to square one, and it’s not a good development from an Administration that was supposed to be the most transparent in history.”
The text of Grassley’s Jan. 31 letter to the FDA commissioner is available here.
An account of developments so far from The Washington Post can be found here.