FDA CENTER FOR DRUGS DIRECTOR WOODCOCK TAKES OFFICE MAY 23
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
FDA CENTER FOR DRUGS DIRECTOR WOODCOCK TAKES OFFICE MAY 23 following clearance by HHS to assume the top spot at the center from acting Director Murray Lumpkin, MD. The appointment of Janet Woodcock, MD to head the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research comes almost four months after FDA Commissioner David Kessler nominated her for the CDER director slot in late January ("The Tan Sheet" Jan. 31, p. 6). In the interim, she continued as director of the Office of Therapeutics Research & Review in the Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research. Lumpkin will resume his role as CDER deputy director for review management.
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FDA CENTER FOR DRUGS DIRECTOR WOODCOCK TAKES OFFICE MAY 23 following clearance by HHS to assume the top spot at the center from acting Director Murray Lumpkin, MD. The appointment of Janet Woodcock, MD to head the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research comes almost four months after FDA Commissioner David Kessler nominated her for the CDER director slot in late January ("The Tan Sheet" Jan. 31, p. 6). In the interim, she continued as director of the Office of Therapeutics Research & Review in the Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research. Lumpkin will resume his role as CDER deputy director for review management. Departmental clearance of Woodcock's nomination and that of other FDAers to senior level positions had been delayed by concerns of HHS officials that the ethnic make-up of senior FDA management is not reflective of the U.S. population ("The Tan Sheet" April 11, p. 25). Presumably, HHS was using the issue as a bargaining chip for when other upper-level positions open up at FDA in the future. Kessler met with NAACP Montgomery Chapter President Gregory Wims on May 11 to discuss FDA's minority hiring, training and promotions practices. Kessler agreed to work with Wims on plans to diversify the agency's workforce. They expect to meet again in two months. Speaking at a same-day meeting of the Parklawn Chapter of Blacks in Government, Wims said he first met with the commissioner a month ago to discuss what he described as 13 appointments at FDA where "most of them were white females and [none were] African Americans." Wims told the gathering that he has "some hard facts and data ...to present to" Kessler. Wims added that he will report back to BIG about the meeting "within 30 days." NAACP, Wims said, "will work hard to promote" African-American men and women for all levels of employment at FDA. Ironically, the delayed package of promotions contained the appointment of an African-American woman, Patricia Love, as director of the Division of Medical Imaging, Surgical & Dental Drugs. Love's promotion, along with that of Stephanie Gray as director of CDER's Office of Compliance and Steve Sundlof as the director for the Center for Veterinary Medicine, is understood to have cleared HHS. The appointees must now obtain approval from the Office of Personnel Management for their senior executive service positions. |