Al Kamen in his “In the Loop” column in the Washington Post (2/18, A11) reports that while the Obama administration has been “a tad slow on nominations this month,” it “is moving with some dispatch to” nominate a new FDA Commissioner and it “has winnowed a fairly large field down to two finalists.” One is Baltimore health commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, a “former health policy adviser to Rep. Henry A. Waxman” who is “focused on things like safe medicines for kids. The other is Margaret Hamburg, who served as assistant secretary of health and human services for policy and evaluation in the Clinton administration and before that was New York City health commissioner.” Both have “some heavy-hitting champions. Sharfstein’s list includes Waxman and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), while Hamburg’s includes Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).”
From the American Association for Justice news release.