FDA lawyer on First Amendment challenge

Medical Marketing and Media, Sep 2002 by Dickinson, James G

WASHINGTON INSIDER

While food and drug bar lawyers are scheming to broaden the FDA's defeat in the Thompson vs. Western States Medical Center First Amendment case to other challengeable regulatory areas, the first public interpretation by an FDA lawyer cautions against reading too much from this "narrow" decision. The FDA's Associate Chief Counsel Patricia J. Kaeding told a Food and Drug Law Institute audioconference on August 1 that Western States merely struck down a statutory exemption and does not answer how other FDA activities are impacted. "Western States is not representative of most First Amendment issues before the agency," she said. Lawyers on the panel with Kaeding seemed to dismiss her position to counter with their own interpretation that several FDA policies are jeopardized by the Western States decision. Washington Legal Foundation Chief Counsel Richard Samp told the audioconference that restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising are ripe for a challenge.