Advisory committees provide independent, expert advice to FDA on a range of issues affecting the public health. To protect the credibility and integrity of advisory committee advice, FDA screens advisory committee members carefully for two categories of potentially disqualifying interests or relationships:

1. current financial interests that may create a recusal obligation under Federalconflict of interest laws; and
2. other interests and relationships that do not create a recusal obligation under Federal conflict of interest laws but that may create the appearance that a member lacks impartiality, known as "appearance issues."   

In August 2008, FDA issued a guidance describing the process it uses to decide whether an advisory committee member has potentially disqualifying interests in the first category, i.e., current financial conflicts of interest that may create a recusal obligation under Federal conflict of interest laws. The 2008 guidance also describes FDA’s process for determining whether to grant a waiver for an advisory committee member with a financial conflict of interest to participate in an advisory committee meeting.

This draft guidance addresses FDA’s process for evaluating whether an advisory committee member has potentially disqualifying interests or relationships that fall into the second category of interests: appearance issues.  It also describes FDA’s process for determining whether to authorize a member with an appearance issue to participate in the advisory committee meeting.