FDA staff’s 2009 corruption-and-wrongdoing letter

An anonymous letter sent to President Barack Obama in 2009 contained an unusually serious accusation from inside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The writers identified themselves only as FDA staff and claimed that "systemic corruption and wrongdoing" existed throughout the agency, describing it as something that reached all levels of the organization.

Beyond that central accusation, very little is established from the material surrounding the letter. The identities of the employees who wrote it were not publicly disclosed, and the available account doesn't provide enough information to determine exactly which allegations they were referring to or what happened after the letter was sent.

Still, the fact that FDA employees reportedly felt compelled to address the President directly made the document notable. The FDA has a major role in regulating products that affect public health, so an anonymous internal warning alleging pervasive wrongdoing naturally raises questions about oversight, accountability and what employees believed was happening inside the agency at the time.