Envisioning 2.0

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that it would be working with Barr Pharmaceuticals to “resolve the remaining policy issues associated with the marketing of [the contraceptive] Plan B as an over-the-counter [OTC] option” after months of delay.

Some think that this move smacks of opportunism. The FDA made this announcement a day before the confirmation hearings of Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach. Some members of Congress have vowed to block a floor vote on his nomination unless the agency makes a decison on the fate of Plan B.

This announcement is good news, but is a poor communications strategy. Its timing looks fishy and reactionary. The agency had months to move the Plan B OTC application forward and decides to do so now? I’m not sure if this announcement answers a lot of questions. In fact, it raises several more and may make Dr. von Eschenbach’s hearings even more contentious.

For more on this story, please see this article from the New York Times.

The blog, Eye On FDA has a good analysis of the FDA’s announcement.

This entry was posted on August 1, 2006 at 11:31 am and is filed under FDA and the Pharmaceutical Industry, Marketing Communications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.