Lester Crawford Resigns Update

Today's New York Times has an interesting story about the possible reason for former FDA commissioner Lester Crawford's sudden resignation.  According to the Times, his resignation was perhaps due to a failure to disclose financial information,

Lester M. Crawford's wife has told family members that an unintentional failure to disclose financial holdings prompted his sudden resignation as commissioner of food and drugs last week, her brother said yesterday. . . . .

Dr. Crawford, reached by phone yesterday, said that he would not comment on whether his resignation had anything to do with his financial holdings.

"I appreciate the opportunity," he said, "but I don't have any comment on that."

The abruptness and mystery surrounding Dr. Crawford's departure, only two months after his Senate confirmation, have fueled speculation that he had investments in companies regulated by the F.D.A., which oversees the food, drug and cosmetics industries.

The Times further reports that the new interim FDA commissioner will continue in his job as the National Cancer Institute as well.  The Times states,

As for the F.D.A.'s new leadership, President Bush named Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, the director of the National Cancer Institute, as acting commissioner on Friday, and Dr. von Eschenbach has said he will keep his position at the cancer institute while running the F.D.A.

But yesterday Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the Senate health committee, said Dr. von Eschenbach should not try to juggle the two jobs.

"There are intrinsic conflicts of interest between the role of N.C.I. director, who manages a research program that includes drug development, and the role of F.D.A. commissioner, whose responsibility is to review the safety and effectiveness of those drugs," Mr. Kennedy said in a letter to the secretary of health and human services.

Moreover, Mr. Kennedy, like Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said that each job had immense responsibilities and that it was therefore not feasible for one person to run the two agencies.

Christina Pearson, a spokeswoman for the secretary, Michael O. Leavitt, said yesterday that the administration was not changing its plan for Dr. von Eschenbach to keep his job at the cancer institute while serving as interim chief of the F.D.A.

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