FDA cancer head wants advisory panels to keep voting on drugs

CHICAGO — As commissioner of the Meals and Drug Administration, Robert Califf has made clear he’d prefer to cast off the votes that punctuate conferences of knowledgeable panels evaluating new medicine for approval. On Sunday, Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA’s Oncology Middle of Excellence, took concern along with his boss.

It’s true that the FDA has no obligation to comply with what the advisory committee recommends, however the votes assist, Pazdur mentioned at [email protected], STAT’s occasion on the American Society of Medical Oncology annual assembly. “I feel we have to vote,” he mentioned. “We’ve got to make a binary resolution at FDA whether or not to or to not approve. If we’re going in a single path, and we hear a unanimous vote in opposition to — we’ve to pause. It’s a must to step again and say, have been we unsuitable on this?”

Califf instructed STAT in an earlier dialog about advisory committees convened by the company: “I wish to eliminate voting as a lot as doable. That’s a behavior. It’s not a requirement, and it’s not very helpful. I’d like extra advisory committees to be concerning the enthusiastic about the sector and the intervention that’s being assessed, not a lot the approval resolution. That’s an FDA resolution, not an advisory committee resolution.”