11 of a 16 medical examiners who left the FDA ended up working for big pharma

Representative Michael Cloud: "In 2018 the Journal of Science found that 11 of a 16 medical examiners who left the FDA ended up working for companies they previously were responsible for regulating, that's roughly 2/3 or more than 2/3. These wealthy and powerful pharmaceutical companies recruit former FDA employees with lucrative job offers in order to leverage their connections. Existing law imposes only a very limited restrictions on these revolving door. Former employees are only prohibited from lobbying the FDA for very few specific matters and they're only subject to a 2-year cooling off period. Meanwhile former FDA employees can go and collect pretty substantial paychecks from companies once regulated. Just 2 months after leaving government service the leading medical officer for the FDA's office of vaccine research and review took a high level job at Moderna. There's another one. Recently the medical officer who decided on behalf of the FDA whether the clinical data from Moderna's vaccine medicine met approval standards also took a job shortly after that with the company just months after the vaccine received license. And so I think you can see why many of the Americans can look at history of this and be very concerned about what's going on...From 1981 to 2019 9 of the 10 commissioners went into work for pharmaceutical companies from leaving their office...You supposed to give oversight to these companies, whether in food and drug industry. And you know that you're not gonna get a job - someone who wants one of these high paying jobs after leaving the department knows that they're not gonna be hired by someone who was very strict on them. So there is built-in incentive to be lax in these things."