New FDA Commissioner
Mar/13/09 11:08
On March 11, President Obama appointed Margaret A. Hamburg, MD to be the new FDA Commissioner. She has a substantial educational background including an MD degree from Harvard and training in neuropharmacology. She has had long public service at the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, where her work focused on AIDS research, and Health Commissioner for New York City. President Clinton selected her in 1997 to be assistant secretary for policy and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Not only does she have a background in healthcare policy, medical research, and the bureaucracy that controls both, she has experience with industry, sitting on the Board of Directors of Henry Schein.
She might be the perfect choice between someone totally acceptable to industry and to consumer advocates, a narrow path tread by few.
The FDA needs upgrading and leadership. It’s clear that both industry and consumers have lost some faith in the FDA, possibly because of a few drugs such as Merck’s Vioxx, which has been withdrawn from the market.
From her background in public service, to her understanding of science, to her knowledge of the medical products industry, it’s clear she’s a good, if not perfect, choice to lead the FDA. I’m impressed so far, but I hope she can lead that cantankerous organization to have a vision for how to regulate medical products effectively.
By Michael W Simpson
She might be the perfect choice between someone totally acceptable to industry and to consumer advocates, a narrow path tread by few.
The FDA needs upgrading and leadership. It’s clear that both industry and consumers have lost some faith in the FDA, possibly because of a few drugs such as Merck’s Vioxx, which has been withdrawn from the market.
From her background in public service, to her understanding of science, to her knowledge of the medical products industry, it’s clear she’s a good, if not perfect, choice to lead the FDA. I’m impressed so far, but I hope she can lead that cantankerous organization to have a vision for how to regulate medical products effectively.
By Michael W Simpson