Pharma Critic Is Candidate for Top FDA Post

[Celebration]

Source: Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- A doctor who once denounced Pfizer Inc. for holding a marketing event in a pool hall is leading President-elect Barack Obama's team formally assessing the troubled Food and Drug Administration, boosting his chances of becoming the next FDA commissioner.

Joshua Sharfstein, now head of the Baltimore Health Department, has tangled with the pharmaceutical industry on several occasions and would likely lead the agency to get tougher on drugs. Companies might benefit from his strong support of childhood vaccinations, however.

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Drug companies particularly worry about two contenders for the top job whose crusading has affected FDA policy and corporate bottom lines.

One is Dr. Sharfstein, who successfully pushed the FDA last year to block drug makers from selling over-the-counter cough and cold medicines to small children. The other is Steven Nissen, 60, head of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Nissen's questions about the safety of two popular drugs, the diabetes medicine Avandia and the anticholesterol pill Vytorin, have hit their makers' sales hard and given him a platform to criticize the agency that approved them.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122902814065899257.html...

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According to Mike Huckman of CNBC, Nissen has the edge. Neither of these guys are wanted by Big Pharma, who are promoting other people. Big pharma contributed lots of $$$ to Democrats this year, so we'll see.