Sid Wolfe, who has led Public Citizen’s Health Research Group for the past 38 years, is looking for a successor, but with little luck. He thought he had one in the guise of Peter Lurie, who for many years was his deputy director, until Lurie left unexpectedly last fall for a job with the FDA (see here). Since then, Wolfe hasn’t been able to find a new deputy to succeed him.

“I’d like to step down and, from my perspective, the sooner, the better,” says Wolfe who, nonetheless, intends to continue working for the advocacy group and also remain a member of the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee. “We’ve gotten a fair number of applicants, but they have to have extraordinary quantitative skills, a completed residency in internal medicine and be willing to work for a relatively low salary.” How low? He would only say, “not a lot.”

For his part, Wolfe never gave the impression that he’s been in it for the money. A gadly by nature and physician by training, he co-founded the Health Research Group along with Ralph Nader in 1972 and, ever since, has irritated countless FDA officials and pharma employees with his relentless insistence that safety is too often overlooked, among other things. Under his tutelage, for instance, Public Citizen regularly filed citizen petitions with the FDA, demanding the agency either withdraw drugs or issue stricter warnings.

“This is about research-based advocacy,” he says. “But it’s not as if I’m going to stop doing what I do. I still enjoy it. I’d just like to work 40-hour weeks, instead of what I work now. The issue is finding qualified applicants who will accept the salary. You know, physicians can make a fair amount at the FDA, for example. So you do have to love the work. But what’s not to love?”

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