A Medical Device Daily

The FDA celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 last Friday in an event featuring Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach.

The roster of attendees at the celebration included descendants of Harvey Wiley, MD, whose impact on the legal and regulatory development of the day earned him the sobriquet “Father of the Pure Food and Drugs Act.” The celebration took place in the Harvey W. Wiley Federal Building in College Park, Maryland.

Wiley's study of food adulteration dated to 1883 during his time with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which followed his attainment of an MD at the Indiana College of Medicine (Indianapolis) 12 years earlier. Thanks to a $5,000 congressional appropriation, he led a study of food preservatives commencing in 1902, dubbed by the press of the day as the “poison squad” studies that provided the public and congressional support that led to the Pure Food and Drugs Act.

The Pure Food and Drugs Act declared that “the examinations of specimens of foods and drugs shall be made in the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, or under the direction and supervision of such Bureau, for the purpose of determining from such examinations whether such articles are adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of this act.” The FDA thus had its beginnings as a division of the Department of Agriculture.

Then-president Teddy Roosevelt's interest in such legislation was fed by Upton Sinclair's exposé novel, The Jungle, and while Roosevelt was said to have told Sinclair that the book's socialist slant was of no particular interest to the White House, Roosevelt nonetheless concluded that action was called for to deal with the abuses in the Chicago meatpacking industry.

The agency's press release noted that the products it regulates “represent almost 25% of all U.S. consumer spending and include 80% of the national food supply as well as all human drugs, vaccines, blood products, medical devices, tissues for transplantation, radiation-emitting equipment, and animal drugs and feed.”

The FDA's web site states that the agency had a “staff of approximately 9,100 employees and a budget of $1.294 billion in 2001.” According to the Jan. 9, 2001, edition of the NIH Record, the FDA's sister agency enjoyed “another record-setting budget for FY01, totaling $20.3 billion.”

Possis on Nasdaq Global Select

Possis Medical (Minneapolis) said that it is included in the new Nasdaq Global Select Market. The Nasdaq Global Select Market has the highest initial listing standards of any exchange in the world based on financial and liquidity requirements. Prior to the change, Possis had been listed on the Nasdaq National Market.

Beginning July 3, Nasdaq-listed companies will be classified under three listing tiers: Nasdaq Global Select Market, Nasdaq Global Market, and Nasdaq Capital Market. Nasdaq also plans to launch indexes based on these new tiers.

Possis Medical makes medical devices for the cardiovascular and vascular treatment markets.