FDA Office, Firms Win Award for Collaboration

The Clinton administration recently rewarded the federal Food and Drug Administration’s Irvine district office and local companies it regulates for collaborating to improve their relationship.

Vice President Al Gore’s “Hammer” award has been bestowed on the Los Angeles Grassroots Regulatory Partnership--an organization of representatives of the FDA’s district office and 14 companies.

However, sources suggest that the agency and industry haven’t taken up the critical question of how to involve the public in their endeavors.

Though government and industry types say the partnership is aimed at safeguarding and improving the health of Americans, citizen advocates get nervous when the two get too cozy. “On the surface, there’s nothing in a public-private partnership that should cause alarm, as long as there are mechanisms in place that ensure the public is protected and has an opportunity to be involved in the process and make comment, says Carri Ziegler, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Consumers Union, an advocacy organization.

An industry member said the group is “just so new” that it hasn’t considered such questions yet. “These kinds of questions are certainly legitimate and they should be looked into,” the member added.

In issuing the award, administration official Bob Stone praised the local organization for proposing that the FDA establish a position for an “industry facilitator” to trouble-shoot problems between industry and the government “outside of the normal channels.” Ray Nelson, an agency employee, was later named to that position.

Gore’s award, derisively inspired by $600 hammers purchased by the Defense Department several years ago, is supposed to recognize teams created by federal agencies who find ways to make government run more efficiently. The award consists of an ordinary $6 hammer and background mat.

The agency’s local district, which includes Southern California and Arizona, encompasses 11,604 companies that make or sell drugs, medical devices, food and cosmetics.

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Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at barbara.marsh@latimes.com