Pharma favorites for new FDA Commissioner

The Los Angeles Times reports that the US pharmaceutical industry'slist of favored candidates for the post of new Food and Drug Administration Commissioner is headed by: - Michael Friedman, who became acting FDA Commissioner after David Kessler left in 1997, and is now vice president for R&D at Pharmacia's Searle division; - Bruce Burlington, ex-FDA device branch chief and now senior vice president, regulatory affairs and compliance, at Wyeth-Ayerst, and; - Ed Scolnick, president of Merck Research Labs.

The LA Times also notes that the choice of one of President George W Bush's most influential supporters, Senator Bill Frist, who is also the Senate's only licensed physician, is Raymond Woosley, an associate dean at Georgetown University Medical Center.