As a commenter to a past post noted, a dynamic physician with business savvy would be crucified at the FDA. Alas, that commenter is likely correct. There are always people who will try to bring down someone who could bring necessary changes and enliven an institution.
But it might be that the current administration will not be able to rely on having its current non-dynamic physician appointed as the FDA Commissioner. Some Senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will be considering the issue on Thursday, have made it very clear that they will be putting a "hold" on the nomination of Dr. Lester Crawford as the permanent FDA Commissioner (he has been the Acting Commissioner for 18 months or so now).
Democratic Senators Patty Murray of Washington and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York are concerned about the rather long delay that has been imposed on making a decision on the over-the-counter version of the morning-after pill. Despite recommendations from the vast majority of the scientific consultants that the OTC pill be allowed in the market, the FDA has yet to allow or deny the pill.
But it's not just the Dems who are putting the kibosh on allowing a full Senate vote. Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is also declaring that he would place a hold on the nomination because the FDA had not required condom makers to have revised labels informing users that condoms do not fully protect against sexually transmitted diseases.
In the political world, its not a bad strategy to make the FDA make some sort of decision about these matters. It's not likely, though, that the FDA will cave on the OTC pill and it would prefer to just keep an Acting Commissioner at the agnecy rather than risk either alienating a strong segment of its voting base or backing down to the Democrats.
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