FDA's new expert panels are rife with financial conflicts and fringe views

A series of panels summoned by the Food and Drug Administration raises concerns that the agency folds the federal rules and promoted marginal views of antidepressants and other products. The FDA has more than 30 experts specializing in medicines, vaccines and other products. But more and more, the agency does not call them. Instead, the FDA commissioner, Marty Makary, is organizing ad hoc sessions with external experts who often have counter-current opinions and financial interests in subjects under discussion. The meetings focused on questions of interest for the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including depression pills and talc powder.