"FDA doing Spectacular Job"

During an appearance on ABC's "This Week", President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, said, "I don't know that we need a commission. I would like the FDA to continue to do the job they do."

"I support the FDA. They do a spectacular job. When you think about all of the new technologies and the new drugs that are coming into the marketplace, and they have to review them all to make sure that when they come into the marketplace, they live up to the expectation of improving health care."

However, the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee disagreed. In a statement referring to the FDA, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said, "on protecting us from harmful prescription drugs is a catastrophic failure."

We need an FDA that looks out for the health of patients and not just the health of the pharmaceutical industry. Lives are at stake, and the president should put an FDA leadership team in place right away, with no ties to the industry it regulates, and that's committed to reform."

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