'High noon' nears on FDA reform

WASHINGTON - The results of months of hyperactive, but largely stealthy, efforts by numerous parties to influence congressional action on FDA reform will be thrown into the open the next two weeks as the Senate and House of Representatives finish crafting legislation and begin to debate it in public.

Events last week significantly increased the chances that legislation will hit the floor in both houses. On Saturday, the House Republican leadership planned to announce a team to lead FDA reform and set an aggressive legislative time table. Earlier, Sen. Nancy Kassebaum's Labor and Human Resources Committee postponed for one week the "mark-up" setting the final language of the Kansas Republican's reform bill, S. 1477...