FDA commissioner watch
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Massachusetts will be the first state to welcome the not-yet-nominated candidate to head the agency, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) predicts May 11 at the MassMEDIC conference in Waltham, Massachusetts. "I'm looking forward to the time when we finally have our new commissioner of the FDA, and we know that the first stop of that commissioner is going to be in Massachusetts," he says. Kennedy anticipates a close working relationship between the new commissioner and members of the Massachusetts medical device industry council, "the kind of partnership we were beginning to develop - and which I thought made some impressive progress - with our last" commissioner. Jane Henney, VP-Health Sciences at the University of New Mexico, is understood to have been notified the week of March 2 by President Clinton of her selection for the post, although she has yet to be officially nominated pending an FBI background check ("The Gray Sheet" March 16, p. 8). Kennedy encouraged the Administration to select Henney over current Acting Commissioner Michael Friedman...