In ... the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (JLME), Donald W. Light of the School of Public Health, University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ, wrote an article entitled Risky Drugs: Why The FDA Cannot Be Trusted". The bulk of his essay focuses not on his views about pharma's competence but rather on his issues with the FDA. While I found a number of his comments troubling, the following stood out. "The ... article in JLME also presents systematic, quantitative evidence that since the industry started making large contributions to the FDA for reviewing its drugs, as it makes large contributions to Congressmen ... drugs approved are significantly more likely to cause serious harm, hospitalizations, and deaths." This is a pretty damning comment. Basically, Light is saying that pharma paid congressmen to sponsor legislation that results in the FDA being beholden to pharma for funding for its work. Implicit in this is that, as a result of these large "contributions", the grateful FDA is rapidly approving medicines that are harmful.
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