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Article: FDA Battles for Authority Amid Generic-Drug Scandal; HHS Chief Curbs Investigative Role
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- August 16, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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In July of last year, a senior Food and Drug Administration
official and two investigators from the staff of Rep. John D. Dingell
(D-Mich.) squared off in a hallway in the FDA's Rockville
headquarters.
After a week of searching through the files of the agency's
generic-drug division, the two investigators were walking out with
documents they thought would help them in their probe of alleged
corruption of FDA officials who review drugs for approval. But,
according to the staffers, FDA Associate Commissioner Hugh Cannon
angrily stopped them and said the documents contained confidential
information that they had no authority to remove.
That confrontation, which ended in a shouting match as ...