In what might turn out to be an odd mistake, the current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Rob Califf was included in a database of pharmaceutical company payments to physicians updated by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Thursday.
The database says Califf received five payments from GlaxoSmithKline for travel, lodging, food and beverages, as well as a more than $5,000 consulting fee from AstraZeneca in 2015. In 2014, when he was not working for FDA, Califf received almost $32,000 from companies and in 2013, he received more than $28,000.
An FDA spokesperson told Focus: “We can’t immediately confirm the accuracy of data that dates back to 2015, but Commissioner Califf wasn’t on travel or at such an event on that date.
