FDA urged to release PR information
The FDAnews Drug Daily Bulletin reported April 25 that Democrats John Dingell (D-MI) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) sent a letter to the FDA requesting information about the agency’s use of funds to hire outside PR. The representatives’ letter named Washington-based Qorvis Communications as a possible agency for the FDA.
An FDA spokeswoman said today that she could not confirm whether the agency had hired a PR firm, but later, spokeswoman Heidi Rebello told PRWeek that the FDA does not have a contract with Qorvis.
Don Goldberg, one of the agency’s partners, told PRWeek that the firm was contacted by the FDA before the start of 2008 about the possibility of an educational campaign, but since then, nothing has moved past discussions.
In the FDAnews story, Dingell stated, “When money to protect Americans from unsafe food and drugs is scarce, luxuries like PR firms and fat bonuses should not even be a consideration.”
Earlier this month, Dingell called on the FDA to more closely examine the use of bisphenol in plastic bottles.
[...] I didn’t realize we were a luxury item Filed under: public relations — lizajones @ 8:28 am Tags: FDA, John Dingell, public relations So here I am, still basking in my somewhat-starting-to-fade vacation tan, reading the morning headlines when I came across this post in PR Week’s The Cycle blog. [...]
[...] provides FDA oversight, was quoted in the Post article as vowing to investigate the matter. But he may already have started back in April, when he and another House member (Bart Stupak, also a Michigan Democrat) queried the FDA [...]