Wyngaarden To Step Down As NIH Director

WASHINGTON—The resignation of James Wyngaarden last month after more than seven years as director of the National Institutes of Health may have caught scientists by surprise. But it was a long time coming for the 64-year-old Wyngaarden. In fact, his last day on the job, July 31, will be nine months past the date when the soft-spoken former Duke University medical schcol administrator had hoped to leave the post. It’s clear that Wyngaarden has had his fill of the political battles that go with his position. Speaking candidly about the Reagan years, he admits that “we’ve had no consistent science policy” for that entire period. He describes the annual budget process as a situation where “the administration tries to get by with as little as it can, and then Congress repairs the damage to the greatest extent possible.” That constant struggle for funds can be exhausting, Wyngaarden admits. “Last year I began to feel that I had done my bit and that it was time for someone to take over,” he says. “The issues never seem to go away, and the pressure is unrelenting.” But stepping down isn’t easy for an administrator with a genuine sense of obligation to his constituents. “My original target date was November 1, [1988]” he notes. “But by that time the human genome project had started to come together, the fraud and misconduct issue had heated up, and Vince De Vita resigned [as director of the National Cancer Institute] and I saw an opportunity to play a role in picking his successor.” The selection of Nobel laureate James Watson to head NIH’s new human genome office and AIDS researcher Samuel Broder to succeed De Vita didn’t slow the pace of events, however. By that time George Bush was getting ready to move into the White House, and Wyngaarden again saw the benefits of continuity. “I feel strongly that the position of NIH director should not turn over as soon as a new president takes office,” he says. “After all, the job has never been a political one.” In the end, however, Wyngaarden realized that he couldn’t hold back the tide forever. “It became clear that the [Bush] transition team looked at this job as the same as any other top-level slot, and I can’t argue with that. Afew weeks ago [early in April] Lou Sullivan [Bush’s new secretary of Health and Human Services] talked to the president and he confirmed that he wanted to turn over the position.” Wyngaarden believes that NIH has made considerable progress on his watch. Asked about accomplishments, he cites a budget that has doubled to nearly $7.2 billion, a lengthening in the term of investigator-initiated grants from 3.2 years to 4.1 years, a rise from 15,000 to 21,000 in the total annual number of research grants, and the rapid growth in the effort to understand and treat the AIDS virus. “The scientist is the engine of science,” he says,. “and I think that I did all that I could to put out the greatest amount of resources to the individual scientist.” At the same time, Wyngaarden admits to some failures. “We’ve not been able to stem the tide on the creation of new institutes. We’ve seen [the formation of] the arthritis and deafness institutes and the nursing center, and there’s a good possibility we might see a rehabilitation unit and a renal unit sometime down the road.” Ironically, that proliferation—fed by grassroots campaigns on behalf of individual diseases— comes at a time when scientific research in general, he says, needs “to be elevated to a higher level of concern among the public.”. On other fronts, the potential for conflict of interest by researchers working with industry is something that needs to be watched closely, he adds. But he believes that the current public debate about fraud and misconduct in science “is greatly exaggerated.” “What you’re seeing now is grandstanding by some members of Congress,” he says about recent investigations and hearings. “Congress can certainly sharpen our focus, but I still maintain that fraud can be dealt with by other scientists.” A national search is under way to find Wyngaarden’s successor, who must then be confirmed by the Senate. One name drawing considerable attention is Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whose work in combating AIDS was singled out for praise last fall by candidate Bush. Wyngaarden says that he doesn’t know what he will do next, and that a return to Duke is only one of several possibilities. And he acknowledges edges that he’s leaving with a bittersweet taste for a job that can never be finished. “If the president would have called me and asked me to stay, I would certainly have reconsidered,” he says. “But not for another four years.”

Wyngaarden To Step Down As NIH Director

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Jeffrey Mervis

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May 1989

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