The FDA and the black arts of drug regulation

November 3, 2010

I enjoy reading political histories, especially those spiced with intrigue and gossip. But this is the first time I have read a political history on a subject about which I have been intimately acquainted; covering issues with which I have been personally involved; and about people with whom I have had more than a passing acquaintance. Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA is about the rise in the power and influence of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the latter half of the 20th century; and its decline in the first decade of the present one. Political scientist Daniel Carpenter has written a voluminous account of the politics and personalities that have made the FDA both reviled and respected in the USA and beyond. (The Lancet)