Is it me or is President Obama’s version of the FDA all of a sudden a much, much more active and engaged federal agency in the past few months?
Since Dr. Margaret Hamburg & Joshua Sharfstein took office recently, the FDA has been making headlines on a very regular basis. Today’s news about Chantix & Zyban follows in the immediate footsteps of strong decisions related to acetaminophen, Percocet & Vicodin, Zicam, the medical device approval process, regulating tobacco, ‘Cheerios are a drug’, and even cookie dough. The Commissioner even penned a first-person mission statement in the New England Journal of Medicine announcing her next grouping of targets. And finally, in the vein of a suggestion box brought to life, the agency hosted an open forum town hall forum seeking input on how to make the agency more effective.
That’s quite a bit for less than two months of work! While there is some humor embedded in the message, let’s be clear that change has come to Rockville…and it’s a welcome (if not unpredictable) sight.
