Bush nominates Crawford for FDA chief
President Bush has nominated Lester M. Crawford to commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
For the past three years, Crawford has served as either the agency’s deputy or acting commissioner. He became acting commissioner after the departure of Mark B. McClellan.
Previously, Crawford served as chairman to the University of Georgia’s Department of Physiology-Pharmacology and as administrator to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
According to a Feb. 15 report in the Washington Post, Crawford’s nomination received praised from several large pharmaceutical trade groups, such as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.