Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, says that Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach is not qualified to lead the FDA. Here is Wolfe's statement:
"If confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach will become yet another Bush appointee whose main reason for being selected is that he is a family friend, someone who has been warmly embraced by the regulated industries – especially the pharmaceutical industry – and someone who has been and will continue to be loyal to the White House agenda.
Von Eschenbach continues to exhibit extraordinarily bad judgment, a lack of being in touch with reality and insensitivity to the hopes and fears of other cancer patients and their friends and families, as evidenced by his oft-stated “plan” to eliminate the suffering and death from cancer by 2015. Eradicating cancer within 10 years is not realisitic, and by making this statement, von Eschenbach is cruelly raising people’s hopes.
He is a very poor choice to head this critical agency, and his nomination must be defeated. Otherwise, the FDA will be further weakened and the public health further damaged by someone who is so unqualified."
Posted by schwitz at March 15, 2006 04:38 PM | TrackBackPlan B: Grade F
While the real losers here are the women denied easy access to Plan B, holding up von Eschenbach’s confirmation brings no prizes for the rest of us either. The FDA is charged with evaluating, regulating, and monitoring the safety and efficacy of the substances that we put into our bodies. While Bush bickers with senators in Washington, the FDA is left languishing under a culture that allows politics to inform scientific decisions about health and safety, and that lacks a confirmed commissioner who is capable and willing to bring change to the administration.
As the Plan B dispute continues to drag on, the only thing that's clear is that both the politicians and the food and drug administration deserve a failing grade for their handling of this situation.
Posted by: Tim Kanwar at March 16, 2006 10:36 AM