It’s Official: FDA Commish To Leave January 20
11 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 16th, 2008 // 8:06 am
This is no surprise - Andy von Eschenbach signaled awhile ago that he would depart when the next administration entered the White House. But the FDA commish, who has been a lightning rod for criticism that the agency paid inadequate attention to food and drug safety, sent employees a memo yesterday specifying that he will leave on January 20, when President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in.
Unflappable as ever, though, Andy ignored recent setbacks and failures, and instead focused on the positive, such as a new FDA campus in suburban White Oak, Maryland, that will become agency headquarters this week, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“I am extremely proud of the progress we have made together,” Andy wrote to FDA staffers. “Resources are on a dramatic upward trajectory, and the gleaming new buildings and laboratories at our White Oak campus will make possible synergies and collaboration that were long beyond our reach.”
Just the same, he promised to work with the Obama transition team “to ensure a seamless change in political leadership at the agency. As with any transition, there will likely be changes for other senior managers as well, although all current Deputy Commissioners and the Chief of Staff are career civil servants who have served me and FDA well.” But whether the Obama team will listen to his suggestions for a replacement is a matter of, shall we say, conjecture.
John Mack
I hear that an FDA staffer threw his shoes at von Eschenbach in a “Farewell Kiss”: http://tinyurl.com/597nyz
Salmon
Even though I wasn’t there I’m sure they’ll find some way to implicate me in this ‘discourteous conduct’.
Salmon
BPW
Good riddance to the corporate puppet! I hope that his replacement looks out for the public more than Big Pharma. The potential candidate from Baltimore appears to have the best combination of attributes.
pharmavet
I hope Woodcock, Temple and Laughren also quit.
Jim
Thank you for making my day with the shoe throwing story and the short but poignant uprising of the FDA staff. As for dandy Andy, his only obvious skills have been “being unflappable” and making sure that lethal side effects are in no way revealed, thus protecting Pharma’s bottom line and killing my son (Zyprexa)and many other family members.
Laughren and Temple (and Woodcock) aka the axis of evil, should be given the immediate “boot” as well. January 20. Out.
Tom
I know where that building is at White Oak, and am tempted to drive by and throw a pair of shoes its way. I’d like to support the staff and give Andy another message. If my friends were here from around the country, I’m sure they’d want to join in. All of them have lost their children/family members to SSRIs, atypical antipsychotics, other psychotropics, and they are NEVER going to forget.
Anon
I hope they go to prison and I think I have a very good shot at making that happen for at least one of them. I won’t worry about the others. I’ll let the appropriate authorities sort it out. If one of them gets to a point where they might actually be looking at some serious jail (e.g. decades) I hope that that will result in some singing.
Blue Dog Dem
What’s the process for replacing him in the interim? Does the deputy commissioner become the commissioner? Someone must be officially in charge on Jan. 21. Who makes the decision?Anyone know?
pharmavet
My favorite FDA guy of all time was Ray Lipicky. I’d bring him back as commissioner except that he is probably enjoying consulting much more.
Philip Rudnick
The legacy of vonEschenbach and his BigPharma surrogate cronies - Woodcock, Galson, Temple…
1.In the public: Hundreds of thousands of maimed and dead citizens
2. At the FDA:
Pharmalot, Sept12,2008 Comments
“The entire FDA has been rigged so that no matter what a new administration
tries to do to undo the damage, many dangerous drugs will likely soon come
onto the market, and with preemption and new FDA policies to try to find a
way to keep dangerous drugs on the market no matter what, there will be no
recourse.”
Signed: An FDA Reviewer”
———————————-
Sept. 20
“There are posters up on the walls telling new reviewers that anyone who
isn’t happy and cheerful and going along is a problem. In meetings, the new
reviewers are told that anyone who is against the new way of doing things is
a saboteur.
Signed, Another Reviewer”
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