\jeff{krimmel}

A Second Bush Appointee Resigns

Less than two weeks after the resignation of Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Lester Crawford, has followed suit. Mr. Crawford resigned today, bringing to a close three years of much bad press for the Administration.

Several newsworthy events have taken place on Mr. Crawford’s watch, notably

• delays in approval for the sale of over the counter “morning after” medications,
• a slow response to several publicized dangers (e.g. the risk of heart attacks from Vioxx and suicide from Zoloft),
• and a shortage of flu vaccines for the most recent flu season.

Many people are pleased with the news of Mr. Crawford’s future.

“We will not be missing him,” said Peter Lurie, director of health research at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, in a telephone interview today. “Many of the most serious drug disasters of the last several decades occurred on his watch. He was too much in the pocket of industry.”

“In recent years, the FDA has demonstrated a too-cozy relationship with the pharmaceutical industry and an attitude of shielding rather than disclosing information,” [Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican,] said in a statement today. “Now is the time to reform the FDA’s culture and reassert that the agency’s top priority is what’s good for John Q. Public when it comes to reviewing drugs in the marketplace and making new miracle medicines available.”

It looks as though President Bush will nominate the director of the National Cancer Institute, Andrew von Eschenbach, to replace Mr. Crawford. Von Eschenbach spent twenty five years at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In my book, that’s at least one thing in his favor.