Looks like New York City’s former health commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, and Baltimore health commissioner Dr.Joshua M. Sharfstein will be named by the President as chiefs of the FDA.
Both are Harvard educated professionals with vast experience and should being welcomed changes to an agency that is struggling. The FDA is underfunded and unprepared to timely take the appropriate action to protect the public against food contamination and dangerous drugs.
The Government Accountability Office and the congressionally chartered National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine criticized the agency’s abilities to keep unsafe products off the market and respond effectively to observed hazards.
During a Congressional hearing, Dr. David Graham, a 20 year employee of the FDA, testified that the FDA is “broken” and has “let the American people down.” While discussing the Vioxx example, he concluded that “the FDA, as currently configured, is incapable of protecting the America public against another Vioxx. He explained… “We are virtually defenseless.”
It will be interesting to see how the new FDA chiefs deal with these problems. Some suggest we need centralization of the regulatory process. Others suggest a single food safety agency. There apparently is no shortage of ideas and proposals. And we also see legislative relief on the horizon.
Rep. Dingell has introduced the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act, designed to increase the FDA’s enforcement power. Senator Dick Durbin has introduced The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Hopefully all of this will lead to a healthier food system.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
