Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach will resign effective the 20th of this month. In an internal message sent last month to FDA officials, Dr. von Eschenbach said he would cooperate with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team. While that’s good news, the best news is that the chairman is leaving. I must confess that nothing about Dr. von Eschenbach’s tenure at the FDA has been very impressive. In fact, the agency has been virtually an extension of the drug industry and that must be changed.

The FDA has been rocked with problems over the past few years involving the safety of popular prescription drugs, heart devices, and contaminated food and blood thinner from China. I believe President-elect Obama will select a new FDA leader who will put the health and safety of the American people at the very top of a list of priorities of the agency. For all too long the leadership of the FDA has been much too friendly to the powerful drug industry. Current senior FDA employees are much too close with the industries they regulate, creating a question of who they are working for. We need a complete change in the FDA’s leadership.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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