The European "FDA" or European Medicines Agency (EMA) is in the process of opening its drug industry's research to independent researchers so they can test company claims and expose product deficiencies. This will bring long sought after transparency to Big Pharma's research and claims made on their behalf. Both the FDA and EMA have had severely tarnished integrity because of scandals such as with Vioxx and Avandia.
The previous position of the FDA and EMA has been that data from pharmaceutical trials was private and owned by Big Pharma. However, the European Ombudsman ruled such confidentially was not compatible with the public interest! It is about time!
There is a revolving door between the FDA, EMA, and CDC with Big Pharma. The past director of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, MD, now works for Merck and the former EMA director, Thomas Lonngren became employed by Big Pharma just a few weeks after leaving his post with the EMA.