GAO Sting Shows Independent Review Boards Are Vulnerable to Fraud

So they do know what a "safe" drug is - they just won't tell you since their silence has been bought.

"Institutional review boards (IRBs) may not provide the clinical trial safety net they were designed to be.

That's what Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators found when they conducted an operation in which a fake study protocol was approved by an independent for-profit IRB.

In a related sting, GAO investigators created a fictitious IRB that managed to pass approval by a Department of Health and Human Services office.

'The IRB system is vulnerable to unethical manipulation,' Gregory Kutz, of the GAO's forensic audit and special investigations unit, told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

In recent years, oversight of clinical trials has increasingly shifted from academic institutions to independent, for-profit companies, raising concerns that the system could be manipulated, Kutz said."

Rest assured.

And remember it is better to be fit than "need" the intervention of Big Sick Care.