Word: woode
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...crucial post of Food and Drug commissioner--vacant ever since President Bush took office more than a year ago--finally seemed to have found its man. He was Alastair J.J. Wood, a respected drug-safety expert at Vanderbilt University. Wood, who had been interviewed several times by the White House and told he was the front runner for the job, had the support of usually querulous public interest groups, as well as Senate health-care leaders from both parties. It seemed an easy confirmation...
...Wood was suddenly dropped from consideration last month after pressure was exerted by an even more influential group: the pharmaceutical drug industry. Sources tell TIME that chief executives of several drug houses called White House officials to complain that Wood was too aggressive on drug-safety issues. In early February, the industry's lobbying arm, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PHRma), sent e-mails to company reps in Washington warning that Wood's appointment was imminent. Attached were copies of medical journal articles by Wood in which he called for curbs on drug ads aimed at consumers...
...Wood, a Vanderbilt Medical School professor and vice chancellor for research, got a call from a White House official within days of the lobbying blitz and was told his nomination as the FDA chief was off. The official said opposition from drug companies and conservative media had snuffed his chances, a source tells TIME. Wood, who sits on an FDA advisory panel and the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine, wouldn't comment on his aborted appointment, except to note, "Drug safety is an issue that everyone should embrace...
Drug companies are among the Administration's staunchest allies, the source of more than $12 million for Bush and the G.O.P. in the past election (compared with $5.5 million for the Democrats). A PHRma spokesman says his group took no position on the Wood nomination and denied that the e-mail to drug execs was a call to arms, describing it as "informational." Other industry sources, however, say PHRma coordinated lobbying by CEOs from major companies, who called such key Administration figures as political adviser Karl Rove and Budget Director Mitch Daniels, a former top official of Eli Lilly...
...Best Budget Meal: Ristorante Tre Galline, Via Bellezia 37, tel. 436 6553. With its homey wood-paneled charm and all the best local cuisine, this restaurant offers a taste of how people have been eating in the Piedmont region for centuries. Both antipasti and desserts are rolled out from the kitchen to your table. Try the fowl for your main course. Add a local Barbera wine and your bill will come to under €40 a head...