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# FDA to Relax ‘Speech’ Approach: Lawyer
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-to-relax-speech-approach-lawyer/
- Published: 2017-05-24T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T22:25:40.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, Devices, #legacy-id-D5138771

Attorney **James Beck** (Reed Smith) says that based on FDA commissioner **Scott Gottlieb**’s previous agency and non-agency statements, he doubts “that FDA’s absolutist ban on truthful industry speech about off-label uses will continue much longer in its current form.” Writing in an online blog [post](http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=17db9c79-6695-4cdb-a927-83049266ed5f&ref=fdaweb.com), Beck quotes from several Gottlieb presentations on the subject and says that defendants in cases involving off-label-use-related allegations should consider having their FDA experts review and, if appropriate, rely upon the current FDA commissioner’s positions, particularly to rebut contrary views offered by former FDA officials.

“Dr. Gottlieb has enough of a track record on truthful manufacturer speech about off-label uses of drugs and medical devices, and the constitutional and medical implications of suppressing it, that we are more hopeful now than we have ever been that FDA will see reason, respect the First Amendment, trust physicians, and change its science-suppressing ways,” Beck concludes.