Von Eschenbach Confirmed as FDA Head
Retiring Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist yesterday forced a procedural vote that put an end to months of obstruction by a few senators who held up the confirmation of Andrew C. Von Eschenbach as FDA Commissioner. Von Eschenbach, a former urologist and cancer specialist aged 65, was acting Commissioner since September 2005 after Lester Crawford resigned and has been confirmed by an 80 to 11 vote. Republicans Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and David Vitter (La.) had so far kept the nomination from coming to the floor.
Grassley used his “hold up” prerogative to protest against what he saw as FDA’s failure to be transparent with Congress about an investigation of antibiotic clinical trials, while Vitter did so to champion legal drug reimports from Canada. Jim DeMint, Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray had earlier used von Eschenbach nomination as a battleground over OTC sales of Plan B emergency contraceptives. Murray recently expressed his support for von Eschenbach who is also liked by trade associations representing medical device manufacturers.
December 8, 2006 Related topics: Legal & legislative, People