FDA draws back the veil

The transparency-minded FDA of Margaret Hamburg has taken the first step in its see-through makeover: the regulator has unveiled an Internet-based curriculum called "FDA Basics," aimed at helping site visitors understand what it does.

The Basics content--geared to the regulator's largest constituency, the American public--represents the first of three transparency phases; it's not until phase 3 that the regulator addresses its industry constituents.

The Basics curriculum resulted from recommendations made to the commissioner by a transparency task force, convened by her shortly after she became the 21^st FDA commissioner last May. In the second phase of the initiative, the task force will make recommendations regarding public transparency of agency activities, with an eye toward protecting confidential information. Phase III, as mentioned, involves task force recommendations to the commissioner on FDA transparency to the industries it regulates.

- here's the FDA announcement
- see the FDA Basics content

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