Disclosing the Conflicts of Interest of US Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee Members

In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Xu and colleagues¹ at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report on the conflicts of interest of the voting members of the agency’s advisory committees. The agency excludes many individuals because of conflicts of interest; it may, however, determine that the advantages of a conflicted member’s participation outweigh the disadvantages. Advisory committees are by their nature advisory; the FDA makes the final decisions.^2,3