The next FDA commissioner is...

Valentines Day has come and gone, and still President Barack Obama has not named a head for the embattled US Food and Drug Administration. We linkurl:reported;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/55352/ in January that the search had narrowed to two individuals -- Baltimore city health commissioner linkurl:Joshua Sharfstein;http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/mayor/cabinet.php and Duke University cardiologist linkurl:Robert Califf;http://www.dukemedicine.org/Leadership/Administration/CaliffRobert -- but now it appears that the script has slightly flipped.

Sharfstein

According to the linkurl:__Washington Post__,;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021703177.html Sharfstein is still in the running, but Califf has been replaced by linkurl:Margaret Hamburg,;http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_136.html an AIDS researcher with an impressive resume. Hamburg, a Harvard Medical School grad, was the New York City health commissioner for much of the 1990s, and before that served as assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. In the Clinton administration, Hamburg served as assistant secretary for policy and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Though it was reported that Califf and Sharfstein were interviewed by former HHS secretary-designate Tom Daschle, much has changed in the interim. For one, Daschle's tax indiscretions landed him in some hot Congressional water and led to him withdrawing his nomination. Also, the economic stimulus bill's wild ride through Capitol Hill and the FDA's peanut butter woes may have diverted the Administration's attention away from picking the agency's next leader.

Hamburg

The choice of FDA commissioner will help set the scene for the biobusiness community in the coming years, but the industry isn't speaking up about the two top candidates. Billy Tauzin, president and CEO of industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), told __The Scientist__ only that his organization eagerly awaits the naming of the next FDA commissioner. "We look forward to President Barack Obama's expeditious selection of a full-time leader for the FDA," Tauzin wrote in an emailed statement. "Due to the vital nature of the FDA's public health oversight, identifying a strong, independent FDA Commissioner should be among the next accomplishments of the new Administration."Another industry group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), declined to comment on the imminent appointment.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:And then there were two;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/55352/
[23rd January 2009]*linkurl:The between team;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55329/
[12th January 2009]

Meet the Author

Bob Grant

From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

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