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Bush Names Andrew C. von Eschenbach Acting Director
by Mark Blumenthal
On Friday September 23, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester M. Crawford, DVM resigned. His departure from the agency came as a surprise to many, since his appointment was confirmed by the Senate only two months before on July 18. The first news came late Friday afternoon in an Associated Press article announcing his resignation. 1 The reason he was cited as giving was his age. Dr. Crawford reportedly said that after three and a half years in top positions at the agency, "it is time, at the age of 67, to step aside."2
The New York Times reports that senior FDA officials said they were surprised (the paper says they were “stunned”) to learn of the resignation in an e-mail message sent by Dr. Crawford, who reportedly had also sent a letter to President Bush notifying him that he was resigning "effective immediately." 2
Although he gave his age as the reason for his resignation, there has been considerable speculation about what may be his true reasons for leaving the politically-charged agency. The New York Times article says that an unnamed “government official”, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tied Dr. Crawford’s resignation to his not fully having disclosed information about his finances to the Senate before his confirmation. 2
Additional speculation about the sudden departure includes the recent drop in morale at the FDA since Dr. Crawford held up the approval of an over-the-counter, morning-after contraceptive pill for women called Plan B after its safety and efficacy had been approved by an FDA expert advisory panel. The assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the FDA’s Office of Women's Health, Susan F. Wood, PhD, a biologist, resigned on August 31 to protest Dr. Crawford’s delay in the approval of the drug.
Other factors may have been the agency’s political liabilities that have emerged in the post Merck-Vioxx® recall, which has raised questions about the FDA’s drug approval process. Further speculation includes that possibility that new information arising from previous allegations of improper behavior, for which he had been previously cleared.
Dr. Crawford’s resignation comes one day after a critical editorial about the state of science at the FDA was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Titled “A Sad Day for Science at the F.D.A.” the article stated, “recent actions of the F.D.A. leadership have made a mockery of the process of evaluating scientific evidence,” disillusioned many scientists, and “squandered the public trust and tarnished the agency's image.” 3
President Bush immediately announced the appointment of Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD to serve as Acting Director of the FDA. Dr. von Eschenbach has been director of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health since January 2002. He previously had an extensive career as a physician and as an executive at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
An article about Dr. Crawford’s confirmation appeared in the August 2005 issue HerbalEGram.
References
1. Neergaard N. FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford Resigns. Associated Press, September 23, 2005.
2. Pear R, Pollack A. Leader of the F.D.A. Steps Down After a Short, Turbulent Tenure. New York Times. September 24, 2005.
3. Wood AJJ, Drazen JM, Greene MF. A sad day for science at the FDA. N Engl J Med. September 22, 2005; 353:1197-1199
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