Pfizer will hold a meeting with analysts today to review drugs it is working on.

That is a dangerous dependency that distorts how the agency allocates money and staff and how fast it reviews drugs.

The purpose of these fees is to provide resources to the FDA that help them more effectively review potential new drugs.

Now the agency is taking longer to review drugs and weighing side effects more seriously, he said.

The job of the F.D.A., they said, is to review drugs for the uses proposed by manufacturers.

As a result, the F.D.A. has revised its procedures for reviewing generic drugs and a grand jury is weighing indictments.

This, critics say, has made the division less efficient in reviewing drugs than the drug division, which concentrates strictly on drug evaluation.

At that time, she "was one of only seven full-time and four young part-time physicians reviewing drugs" for the FDA.

The FDA is normally given 10 months to review new drugs.

Because the drug agency is a small, underfinanced agency with huge areas of responsibility, it has been unable to review drugs as fast as they are produced.