Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

President Barack Obama’s top pick for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, Bioterrorsim expert and former New York City health commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, says that she wants to restore public confidence in the FDA, according to Boston.com.

She already has Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s support. “Her expertise is valuable for problems we now face, such as combating food-borne illness, cooperating with other agencies to address the new flu outbreak and drug-resistant diseases, and protecting our food and drug supplies,” Sen. Kennedy said in a statement for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing.

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As a presidential candidate, President Barack Obama said he supported individuals’ rights to import cheaper drugs from other countries provided the FDA beefed up its inspections to ensure the imports are safe. His new budget plan backs up that claim, according to Reuters. The plan, released earlier this week, says it “supports the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) efforts to allow Americans to buy safe and effective drugs from other countries.”

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The Associated Press reported today that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach will resign from his post effective Jan. 20, the same day president-elect Barack Obama takes office.

Von Eschenbach was appointed by President Bush in 2005 after the agency’s previous commissioner resigned due to ethical issues, the AP reports. While under von Eschenbach’s helm, the FDA has undergone scrutiny by Congress and consumer groups over issues such as the tainted heparin scandal earlier this year.

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President-elect Barack Obama has made no formal announcement as yet, but it appears likely that Sen. Tom Daschle will be appointed Obama’s choice for Health and Human Services secretary, according to The Federal Times.

If so, Dashle will inherit a department that oversees the FDA, an agency that is rife with issues. The agency has been the subject of criticism over its handling of the tainted heparin scandal earlier this year in which more than 80 Americans were killed and hundreds more sickened after receiving injections of heparin from China.

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Recent scares of tainted medicines and goods from foreign countries, such as contaminated batches of heparin from China, have spurred presidential nominees Sen. Barak Obama and Sen. John McCain to review their support for individuals to import cheaper drugs from other countries, Reuters/Boston Globe reported today.

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