Changes at FDA? --Janet Woodcock Chosen (Again) to Head CDER
After an exhaustive nationwide search, FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach decided yesterday that Janet Woodcock, a career FDA staffer, was the best choice to lead the agency’s struggling Center for Drug Evaluation (CDER). For Dr. Woodcock who has been the acting head of CDER since September, this will be the second time that she was tapped to lead the center. She was previously appointed to the top CDER job in 1994 by then FDA Commissioner David Kessler (the last time FDA had any real leadership).
The inside skinny on the appointment is that she beat out Jesse Goodman for the position, another career FDA employee who is currently the head of the agency’s Center For Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). What surprises me the most about Woodcock's appointment is that after a nationwide search to find a new leader for CDER, von Eschenbach’s final choice was between two career FDA bureaucrats! Why bring in an outsider with fresh new ideas when the best available talent in the land already works for you?
Don’t expect anything to change at the agency. Dr. Woodcock tows the party line and is loyal to von Eschenbach (who by the way is a personal friend of the Bush family). It is no secret that FDA is broken and desperately needs to be fixed. Choosing a person to lead CDER (for the second time) who has been at FDA for almost her entire career, signals that Commissioner von Eschenbach is neither ready nor willing to implement the systemic changes that are so drastically needed at the agency. Maybe something will change at FDA when someone other than George W. Bush is in the White House?
Until next time….
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!
I'm watching her testimony before Congress on April 29 (C-SPAN) and just had to do some research on her. What you say speaks volumes in light of the remarkable incompetence she's displaying. Cronyism has got to stop.
I would like to know when the medicine of SB-509 will be available. I read it about 3 yrs ago and said it worked to regenerate the nerves in one treatment. Now, there isn't anything to do but pain meds. I have it in feet and legs. I would like to try it. I am a friend of Janet Woodcock, she and my daughter graduated from Hollidaysburg, Pa High school. Please advise if it will soon be available. Please let Janet know. Thanks so much. Sincerely
Freda Helsel, R. R. # 1 Box 441, Hollidaysburg, Pa. 16648