Download - FDA's Young leaving for new post
FDA's Young leaving for new post After a rocky five-and-a-half-year tenure as head of the Food & Drug Administration, Frank E. Young will leave the agency on Dec. 18 to become deputy assistant secretary for health, science, and environment in FDA's parent agency, the Department of Health & Human Services.
In his new, less visible post, Young will be responsible for developing, assessing, and using new technologies that can improve the nation's health care system. He will report to James O. Mason, assistant HHS secretary for health, who commended him for his role in speeding up FDA's evaluation and approval process of drugs for life-threatening diseases, especially AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).
Young's move is viewed as lateral by HHS officials. His new position expands on the one previously held by James Dickson, who was Mason's senior science adviser for environmental affairs.
In the recent past, FDA has been dogged by numerous problems. Among those have been the agency's initial slow response to the AIDS epidemic, corruption and fraud within FDA's generic-drug division, the profusion of misleading health claims on food packages and, most recently, controversy over injuries and deaths from medical devices.
Young: focus of criticism
Some on Capitol Hill and within the pharmaceutical industry believe that Young was made the scapegoat for the generic-drug scandal. Others say he welcomed the change, that he was tired of the criticisms from FDA's myriad and voluble constituents.
Young is not commenting. But HHS spokesman Ellen Casselberry says, "Mason was concerned about having Dickson's job filled. He asked Young to take the position, and Young said he would."
Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr. (R.-Va.), ranking Republican on the House Energy & Commerce Investigation Subcommittee, believes that Young's departure will delay needed reforms at FDA. "He was part of the solution, not part of the problem." Full committee chairman John D. Dingell (D.-Mich.) says Young's intentions were good, "but he was handicapped by the budgets and attitudes of an Administration that let the agency go to seed."
On the other hand, Sidney M. Wolfe, director of Ralph Nader's Public Citizen Health Research Group, tars Young as "by far the worst FDA Commissioner in 18 years. . . . The forced resignation of FDA Commissioner Frank Young can only improve the health of the American public." Wolfe believes that Young pandered to industry and that his "industry-oriented decisions have cost hundreds of lives and injuries to many more."
The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association praises Young for his openness to innovation and for his contributions in the international arena. The group particularly cites Young's championship of the expedited review process of drugs for AIDS and other serious diseases.
No successor has been named. HHS's Casselberry says there "may be an announcement before Dec. 18." Unlike Young and his predecessors, the next FDA Commissioner will have to be confirmed by the Senate.
One name mentioned as successor is Robert Pinco, a partner in the Washington law firm of Baker & Hostetler.
Lois Ember
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