Exclusive: FDA funneled hundreds of millions to PR firm, watchdog reveals
- December 23, 2024
Matthew Foldi, Washington Reporter
Joe Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in user fees to public relations firms, NGOs, and universities, according to a new report by the nonpartisan watchdog Protect The Public’s Trust (PPT), obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter. PPT told the Reporter that it had to go to court to obtain the expenditures.
The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) sets performance standards and reviews premarket applications for new tobacco products. CTP is funded by user fees, which are fees charged to companies and other organizations that participate in certain programs or regulated activities.
The CTP’s reliance on user fees “puts not just its appropriations but its expenditures outside the oversight of congressional and private watchdogs,” PPT’s director, Michael Chamberlain, told the Reporter. “This would not be a problem if CTP were adhering close to its mission. However, CTP has been smacked down by multiple courts for shirking its duties to evaluate and approve applications to sell vaping products.”
“Hundreds of thousands of applications from legitimate manufacturers lay in purgatory while illegal Chinese vapes flood the market to the tune of $3.5 billion per year,” he said. “Meanwhile, CTP has spent more than a half-billion dollars with a single PR firm in the last few years… Even after the lawsuit, FDA continued to stall, claiming confusion about the requests. After months of delay, the agency provided a list of user fee recipients and amounts.”
The largest recipient of funds from the CTP overall, at $500 million, was True North Communications, a partnership between global PR firm FCB Global’s New York component and Rescue. Other advertising firms received almost seven figures sums as well. Competitive marketing data company Comperemedia Inc. received $950,000, while other, smaller agencies received smaller sums.