FDA’s medical experts had industry ties

“Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration convened a committee of medical experts to weigh new evidence concerning the potential dangers in popular birth control pills including Bayer AG’s Yaz and Yasmin. The committee concluded by a four-vote margin that the benefits of drugs with drospirenone, the synthetic hormone in question, outweigh the risks.

However, an investigation by the Washington Monthly and the British medical journal BMJ has found that at least four members of the committee have either done work for the drugs’ manufacturers or licensees or received research funding from them. The FDA made none of those financial ties public.”