Journal Articles

Federal Advisory Committees, Policy Expertise, and the Approval of Drugs and Medical Devices at the FDA

---

Policy makers in the US federal government regularly consult advisory committees, but there is little systematic research on how committee advice influences executive branch policy making. We investigate the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) use of advisory committees when deciding whether or not to approve pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices for marketing. Specifically, using 1997–2006 drug and device approval data, we estimate the influence of committee advice on FDA decision making. We find that an increase in the proportion of committee members voting for drug approval increases the probability of FDA approval and that an increase in the proportion of committee members voting for approval reduces the time it takes for the FDA to approve a drug or device application after committee consultation. Additionally, for theoretical and empirical reasons, our analysis explores the FDA's decision to consult advisory committees and its concern about the delay that committee consultation might introduce. Although data limitations enable us to explore these latter issues with respect to approved applications only, our study has some implications for scholarship on committee consultation, bureaucratic delay, and political control.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

Call Number

-

Publisher

Oxfordshire, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press., 2011

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

10531858

Classification

-

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Vol. 21, Number 2, April 2011.pp. 211-237

Subject(s)

United States
Federal Government
Federal Advisory Committees, Policy Expertise

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment