Following a year-long in-house investigation of employee allegations that the Food & Drug Administration is biased toward the drug industry, Commissioner Alexander M. Schmidt has concluded that not only is there "no evidence to support such charges," but that "there is evidence to refute them." In a 906-page report issued earlier this month, Dr. Schmidt documented allegations made by each individual, questions he posed and answers he received from them during the course of the "open" investigation, and all other relevant agency materials. The investigation took about 16,670 man-hours and cost about $196,000. Last year 11 current or former FDA employees, as well as three agency consultants, told Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.), who chaired joint hearings held by the Subcommittee on Health and the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice & Procedure, that their recommendations to approve drugs were never questioned, but their recommendations to disapprove drugs were almost always questioned. They also test...