Word: fda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...food and drug industry lawyers had heard it all before. Now, here was the freshly minted FDA commissioner, still wet behind the ears at 39, giving them the usual dose of tough talk. "Ladies and gentlemen," David Kessler began, "I am here today to tell you that I place a high priority on enforcing the law." The attorneys, convened in a Palm Beach hotel, nodded obligingly. "This is not the idle talk of a new commissioner," Kessler continued, to more polite nods. Then came the surprise. "Today the U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis is filing on FDA's behalf...
...post that most folks would relish. When Kessler was appointed last December, he faced an agency that for more than a decade had been bled of funds by the White House and burdened with new responsibilities by Congress. AIDS activists were picketing the front doors because of the FDA's sluggish pace in approving drugs. Five employees had been convicted of accepting bribes from the generic-drug industry. There were allegations that other staffers were selling insider information about drug approvals to stockbrokers. And a federal report had just concluded that the agency's outmoded labs and meager staff were...
...University of Chicago-trained lawyer, he defied geography and sleep deficits to achieve both degrees simultaneously. He studied management at New York University and politics as a Senate staffer. For nine years, he ran the hospital at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. When he was tapped for the FDA post, he was serving on a federal commission analyzing that very agency. "A lot of my background comes together here," he says. "I feel comfortable, enormously comfortable here...
Inside the FDA Kessler has been just as aggressive. He's cut the time frame for legal action against a violator from 50 to 25 days. He has also begun to streamline the organization, consolidating 23 department heads into five new positions. For these spots, Kessler has recruited from the private sector a number of high-powered management consultants and Washington attorneys. Most | are in their early 40s, and some of them will be earning less at the FDA than they paid last year in taxes...
Kessler is one member of the '60s generation who never lost the naive conviction that an individual can change the world. Deceptive food labeling troubles him because it is dishonest and unfair. And, without warning, he can break into a mini-sermon about the FDA: "There are 8,000 wonderful people here. They came here because they wanted to protect and promote the public health, and my job is to let them do their...