Free Republic

...Which brings us to the politically motivated attack on FDA Deputy Commissioner Scott Gottlieb -- one of the fellow forward thinkers Dr. Eschenbach will find at the agency. In its zeal to find more "cronyism" in the Bush Administration, Time fingered Dr. Gottlieb this week without offering any evidence of any special connections to the White House -- family or otherwise. Time seems bothered that Dr. Gottlieb is young and recently worked in the private sector part-time as editor of a medical technology newsletter. Largely ignored by Time is Dr. Gottlieb's previous experience in a substantial policy-making FDA role under...

WASHINGTON -- Embattled Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester Crawford resigned Friday, telling his staff that at age 67 it was time to step aside. His resignation came just two months after the Senate, in a long-delayed move, elevated the longtime agency deputy and acting commissioner to the top job. Crawford's tenure was marked by increasing criticism of the agency, as the painkiller Vioxx was pulled off the market for safety problems and regulators held up wider access to emergency contraception.

President Bush and Russian President Putin discussed reform of the U.N. Security Council in a phone call initiated by Putin. The conversation came amid intrigue over a push by Japan, German, India and Brazil to become permanent members of the Security Council. [Will John Bolton be the USA's final ambassador to the UN?] The president continued urging Congress to pass an energy bill, while speaking about energy efficiency at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington. A Senate committee voted to back President Bush's pick to head the Food and Drug Administration, acting FDA commissioner Lester Crawford,...

A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday is expected to vote on Lester Crawford's nomination as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, but like many other Bush nominees, this nominee also faces liberal opposition. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America oppose Crawford, because he has refused to guarantee an FDA decision on access to emergency contraception. Although an FDA advisory panel voted to allow over-the-counter sales of a drug called Plan B in December 2003, the FDA in May 2004 decided to keep it prescription-only for the time being. The FDA...

...Former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan made some progress moving the agency to speed up the drug approval process. But he was pulled away to run Medicare, and agency bureaucrats have since been working feverishly to turn back the clock. The latest evidence of backsliding was a recent vote of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) to recommend against approving Johnson & Johnson's leukemia drug Zarnestra.... This is a special shame because ODAC used to be a bastion of common sense, wherein clinicians who treat cancer patients would often buck FDA statisticians to approve new drugs. But ODAC is now chaired...

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Monday he will nominate Lester M. Crawford (search) to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (search), filling a position that has been vacant for nearly a year amid rising concerns about the safety of drugs on the market. Crawford has been acting commissioner since March 2004, when the Senate confirmed then-director Mark McClellan (search) to oversee the agency that runs the Medicaid (search) and Medicare (search) programs