Senators ask for probe into FDA's chief resgination (Crawford)

[UpInArms]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dateid=38624.6722984259-844417663&siteID=mktw&scid=0&doctype=806&property=symb&value=&categories=&

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- The Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has asked the Office of the Inspector General to investigate the Sept. 23 resignation of the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Lester Crawford. According to an open letter sent Thursday by Committee Chairman Michael Enzi and Ranking Member Edward Kennedy, the committee is particularly interested in whether Crawford had any financial conflicts of interest during his tenure with the FDA. Crawford, 67, abruptly resigned only two months after being confirmed, giving no definitive reason for his decision.

...short blurb...

[fooj]

1. Another PROBE?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...


Peace.

[CottonBear]

2. DId you know that Crawford has no degrees in Human Pharmarcy?

He has a DVM and a PhD in Veterinary Pharmacy. I know someone who worked with him. His opinion is that Crawford is an underqualified political hack.

Crawford's wife inherited a fortune from her family's pharmaceutical business. It seems that they may own stock in a company which had drug approval requests before the FDA i.e. conflict of interest.

[UpInArms]

3. here's what I found earlier today

Former FDA Chief Denies Financial Conflicts

http://www.forbes.com/2005/09/28/crawford-fda-vioxx-cx_mh_0928autofacescan03.html

NEW YORK - Lester M. Crawford, who resigned as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration last Friday, told Forbes.com that he decided to leave the agency because he was tiring after three years at the agency. He denies that financial conflicts of interest had anything to do with his decision to resign.

"I thought it was time for somebody else to do it," Crawford says. "I didn't think it was possible to be very effective anymore."

Crawford's resignation raised eyebrows: While he had been acting commissioner for some time, he was only confirmed as commissioner in July. He became Deputy Commissioner in 2002. Crawford says that, to his knowledge, he did not own any shares of companies that were regulated by the FDA during his tenure as acting commissioner. He says the only thing that came close was his ownership of some paper companies, which he was told became regulated by the agency during his tenure. He promptly sold them.

He says that although his wife's family sold their drug store chain, Walker Drug Company, to a firm that eventually became AmeriSource Bergen (nyse: ABC - news - people ), the giant drug wholesaler, he did not own shares in those companies during his FDA tenure.

Crawford also says he had no interest in Embrex (nasdaq: EMBX - news - people ) during his time as acting FDA commissioner. He had served as a director of the firm, which makes vaccines for birds, and at one point owned as many as 37,000 shares, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But he says that he sold his interest in Embrex before going to work at the FDA. Additionally, he says, bird vaccines are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not the FDA.

...more...

[rwork]

4. Leave it to bush*

He has no shame. My God, a veterinarian.

[CottonBear]

7. If he was a good scientist then he would have been a good FDA head.

However, he was not a great student or a good academic.

My friend was a Veterinary Microbiology/Immunology professor.
He has a BS (Animal Science), a DVM, a Masters in Vet Med, Microbiology/Immunology) and a PhD in Vet Med (Microbiology/Immunology). He is incredibly intelligent. He taught and did research in the areas of Immunology (vaccines, specializing in Swine diseases). A respected academic veterinary scientist and researcher like my friend would be well-qualified for a high level FDA position.

I wonder how long it will be until Crawford is indicted?

[baby_bear]

10. This Bear agrees with CottonBear

I work with a toxicologist who is a doctor of veterinary medicine and she is excellent in human health matters.

There is much more to this story than Crawford's credentials, so let's not make the mistake of assuming that is the end of it.

Keep digging.

b_b

[CottonBear]

11. We bears agree! He got his job because of connections not credentials.

I live in a university town and I know many vets with a wide variety of academic backgrounds. Did you know that Sonny Perdue, the Gov. of my state (GA) went to vet school? He never practiced. Instead, he became a political hack. My vet professor friend taught him at vet school.

Peace. CB

[kestrel91316]

15. Senator John Ensign of NV is another one of these, NOT to be

confused with Dr. Crawford, who has been working in Regulatory Medicine, a branch of veterinary medicine, his whole career IIRC. Sen. Ensign was a student of mine his freshman year in vet school, and I was not terribly impressed. I think his rich casino family put him through vet school and built him a hospital so he could pad his resume with something touchy-feely for the women's vote. RW nut all the way, unfortunately.

Why on earth would you think a career in Regulatory Medicine was insufficient qualifications for a higher position in Regulatory Medicine? It's called promotion from within. Better than hiring a MICHAEL BROWN from outside the system, I am inclined to think.

Oh, and Crawford served for a few years as second in command at FDA - so this makes him UNQUALIFIED for first in command?? Sounds more like RW logic than DU logic.

[CottonBear]

17. I believe in promoting QUALIFIED people from within.

My point was that Crawford was a poor student who used connections to get his PhD without taking certain core courses such as graduate level biochemistry. (Fortunately, this can't occur anymore at the school in question. This occured many years ago under another academic administration.) My source said that there was no way Crawford could have been admitted to the UGA School of Pharmacy.

A former president of UGA, Fred Davison was the former dean of the vet school. Our current governor is a non-practicing vet (He NEVER practiced. He sold agricultural products instead.). I wonder why so many vets are in politics? I think your angle on getting the women's may be on target.

[kestrel91316]

14. Since when is somebody with a DVM, and a PhD in Veterinary

PHARMACOLOGY (do please look up the word) and years of work in food safety/regulatory medicine fundamentally unqualified to head the FDA (stands for FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION)? I want some of that stuff you're smoking.

Now, if you have some juicy factual gossip about him being a lousy student, do tell please. I would love to hear it. Though I am not sure what bearing his student days would have on his FDA position 30 years later.

[CottonBear]

18. Please EXCUSE ME for the spelling mistake. I know what pharmacology is.

I'm insulted that you think "I'm smoking something." That sort of language is not in keeping with DU guidelines.

Once again, I never said that a qualified veterinarian would not be suited for a position as head of the FDA. I said that Crawford is not qualified based on my discussions with one of his former colleagues.

Crawford married into a very wealthy family and used his money and connections to gain an advanced degree without taking normally required core courses in graduate level biochemistry.

[kestrel91316]

21. Excuse me for grouping you with the plethora of other DUers who

apparently consider Crawford unqualified to head the FDA specifically because he IS a veterinarian. Sort of like a convicted felon being unqualified to hold the presidency of the US. There have been many nasty, insulting, hateful posts in this regard and I take offense at them.

If Crawford is unqualified because he got his job based on who he knew, not what he knew, that's another matter entirely. I just don't like the insinuation that veterinarians are lower than pond scum.

[kestrel91316]

13. Wrong. He has a PhD in Veterinary Pharmacology. He knows his

drugs inside and out. Why should a physician/human pharmacologist be considered any better qualified to head the FDA, since he has no training in VETERINARY pharmacology?? It works both ways. Besides, pharmacology is pharmacology. You can transfer your skills easily at the upper levels of bureaucracy. You just hire underlings who know lots about the fields you are weak in.

As to any financial/stock market hanky panky, I say investigate away, and if you find wrongdoing then prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. If he did wrong, he is an utter disgrace to his profession and should be publically hanged as far as I'm concerned.

Is the good doctor a REPUBLICAN by any chance??? (I am embarrassed to say that my profession is a nest of Republicans..)

[leftchick]

20. "underqualified political hack"???

Why he is perfect for the bush regime as that is all they hire!

:grr:

[CottonBear]

5. Here's a DU link from the other day:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1811129

F.D.A. Chief Quit Over Financial Disclosure Form, His Wife's Brother Says
NYT: F.D.A. Chief Quit Over Financial Disclosure Form, His Wife's Brother Says
By STEPHANIE SAUL and ROBERT PEAR
Published: September 28, 2005


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.

The former commissioner's wife, Catherine Walker Crawford, discussed the resignation with her brother, William W. Walker III of Birmingham, Ala., over the weekend, Mr. Walker said in a telephone interview....

***

Mr. Walker, speaking broadly about the Crawfords' finances, did not say which particular holdings his sister had been referring to.

But his comments appeared to be at odds with statements she made in an interview on Monday.

In that interview, Mrs. Crawford rejected suggestions, made by a government official, that her husband had omitted material information from his financial disclosure statements....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/politics/28fda.html?oref=login

[shanti]

8. "unintentional", "oversight"

hmmmph! this is coming up more and more! :grr:

[Benhurst]

6. As Dubya would point out after having read his qualifications,

"Just because he doesn't eat meat, doesn't make him a poor choice."

[rodeodance]

9. the new director has the same conflict of interest.

[PATRICK]

12. It would take a thousand investigators

to find any Bush appointee who DOESN'T have a lucrative conflict of interest and a vested one at that in destroying the agency they are occupying.

This is one no brainer major crime that has never stuck to anyone in the regime and i can't think of one who doesn't profit on the side, directly and every which way from their disservice to the conquered nation.

[kestrel91316]

16. This is NOT about a lack of professional qualifications, unlike the

Brown/FEMA debacle, folks. This looks like another garden-variety financial conflict of interest, which is almost de riguer for Bush appointees.

I am reminded again that my beloved profession is apparently chock full of Republicans for some strange reason. That may explain why so many vets here in Los Angeles, at least, put money before their patients' best interests with some regularity.

[godai]

19. I don't buy the financial non-disclosure excuse.

If they wanted to, they could have corrected this and said no big deal. The way they had the wife of his brother talking about the non-disclosure excuse, reeks of a plan to divert attention from the real reason, whatever it is. I'll bet the non-disclosure was for something like Giant Food stock or something even more remote and this was used to explain his resignation. His stock holdings HAD to have been gone over before, during his confirmation. It's a clever excuse, which everyone is buying, with no details.

The NCI head as Acting Commissioner is a joke. Another smokescreen to take off pressure by identifying a qualified clinician who has no intention of leaving NCI. No way can he handle both jobs and there is an obvious conflict. NCI develops drugs that FDA reviews. My guess is one of the Deputy Commissioners will be named Acting in the near future...Crawford part 2.