Washington – The new acting chief of the Food and Drug Administration says he will be presiding over a transformation in medicine as scientists come to understand diseases in a more detailed way that could improve doctors’ ability to treat patients.
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, tapped by President Bush as the temporary chief of the regulatory agency, said Sunday that discoveries about diseases at “a molecular level” will lead to a new kind of health care.
Now, doctors treat illnesses based on how well other people have responded to a given treatment. Soon, they will develop a tailored response built around specific understandings of the patient, the treatment and the disease, he said.
“We are discovering so much about diseases like cancer at the molecular level,” said von Eschenbach, a urologic surgeon by training. “Much of what we have done … has been based on a model of empiricism.”
Soon, doctors will be able to intervene with medical treatments more effectively matched to a specific patient’s illness.
Preparing the FDA for this transformation is among his goals, von Eschenbach said.
Von Eschenbach said he will remain chief of the National Cancer Institute, the government’s lead agency in researching cancer treatments, while running the FDA. He gave no indication of whether he expected to be nominated as permanent chief of the FDA.
He replaces Commissioner Lester Crawford, out only two months after the Senate confirmed him for the post. Crawford had functioned as acting head for more than year.
Crawford’s surprise resignation, submitted Friday and effective immediately, gave no specific reason for his departure. His tenure was marked by increasing criticism of the agency by those who contended it had become more interested in politics or benefiting drug companies than in its mission to protect consumers.
Von Eschenbach declined to discuss in detail specific cases that have led to criticism of the FDA, including those of Vioxx, one class of painkiller only lately tied to heart problems, and Plan B, an emergency contraceptive that the FDA has yet to approve for over-the-counter sales despite assurances that it is safe.
Despite the criticism, von Eschenbach had only praise for his colleagues at the FDA.
