Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/us-fda-bayer-idUSTRE80C03320120113
By Anna Yukhananov
WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:51pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A watchdog group on Thursday urged the Food and Drug Administration to hold a new vote about blood clot risks from popular birth control pills, after advisers to the agency were shown to have ties to the pillmakers.
The FDA asked outside experts in December to discuss the safety of birth control that contains the compound drospirenone, including Bayer's Yaz and Yasmin.
The panel decided by a four-vote margin that the benefit of pregnancy prevention from these pills outweighed their risk of dangerous blood clots.
But according to court and public documents, three of the FDA's 26 advisers had research or financial ties to Bayer. A fourth adviser had a connection to a manufacturer of generic copies of Yaz, Barr Laboratories, now part of Teva Pharmaceuticals.
All four of these advisers voted that the drugs' benefits outweighed risks, meaning the pills could stay on the market, according to the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
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