Email to a Friend
Stumble It!
WASHINGTON-A cancer specialist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center was named Wednesday as second-in-command of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Frank M. Torti, who runs the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the medical center and heads the medical school's cancer biology department, will become the safety agency's chief scientist next month.
In the newly created position, Torti will serve as FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach's top deputy while coordinating medical research and helping to recruit new scientists to the agency.
He has also been charged with improving the way the agency conducts follow-up studies to examine the safety of drugs after they have gone to market.
Over the last few years, the FDA has received intense criticism from consumer groups and health advocates for failing to alert the public to problems with certain drugs - most notably Vioxx - and pull them from pharmacy shelves.
That criticism led to passage of a bill last year designed to address the issue and created the agency's first chief scientist position.
Torti could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"I look forward to beginning this work at this important moment for the FDA," he said in a prepared statement released by the agency.
Consumer groups and health researchers agree that the FDA is at a critical point in its history.
In addition to a slew of recent government reports revealing problems with the agency's oversight of both clinical trials and the importing of contaminated drugs from China, Congress is now considering adding oversight of tobacco to the FDA's portfolio.
In recent years, the agency has had difficulty retaining and recruiting scientists, as some have complained that their judgment about the safety of drugs was overridden by political appointees with a pro-pharmaceutical industry bias, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of health research for Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group and frequent FDA critic.
"There's a nefarious relationship between the FDA and the drug industry," he said. "That creates a poor scientific environment, and they've lost a lot of good people because of it."
Wolfe, a seasoned public health advocate, said he was not familiar with Torti. But Torti will report to "the worst FDA commissioner we've ever had," Wolfe said.
"Unless the person who is chief scientist drives themselves - without impediment from the commissioner - to do a much better job as a regulatory agency, then we're in a lot of trouble."
Torti, 60, knows that becoming the agency's number two in such a politically charged environment will not be easy, friends and colleagues said.
"He has a tough hide," Dr. Jerry Garvin, chair of the medical school's pathology department and deputy director of the cancer center, said of his colleague. "Before he got the job, he was advised that if he wanted a friend in Washington, he had better get a dog."
Torti specializes in cancers that affect the prostate, kidney, bladder and male testes. Von Eschenbach, a doctor who specialized in prostate cancer before arriving at the FDA, knew and respected Torti, Garvin said.
In a statement, von Eschenbach said Torti's "impressive clinical and scientific credentials are an excellent match for the work we do on a daily basis."
Torti, who received his medical degree from Harvard, has been on the faculty of Wake Forest since the early 1990s. His new job begins in May, but he will likely not be away from Winston-Salem for long.
Because the position is a political appointment, his tenure in Washington will probably end with the close of President Bush's second term in January. A new president generally - but not always - selects new people to fill such jobs, generally those who share a similar political outlook.
Though North Carolina voter registration records show Torti does not belong to a party, he has donated exclusively to Republicans since 2000, giving a total of $3,250 to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and $250 to Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.
Garvin, who was appointed interim director of the cancer center in Torti's absence, said that his colleagues at Wake Forest expect him back after a leave of absence of between nine months and a year.
"He's coming back," Garvin said. "Thank goodness."
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668
Dr. Frank M. Torti, who runs the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the medical center and heads the medical school's cancer biology department, will become the safety agency's chief scientist next month.
In the newly created position, Torti will serve as FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach's top deputy while coordinating medical research and helping to recruit new scientists to the agency.
He has also been charged with improving the way the agency conducts follow-up studies to examine the safety of drugs after they have gone to market.
Over the last few years, the FDA has received intense criticism from consumer groups and health advocates for failing to alert the public to problems with certain drugs - most notably Vioxx - and pull them from pharmacy shelves.
That criticism led to passage of a bill last year designed to address the issue and created the agency's first chief scientist position.
Torti could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"I look forward to beginning this work at this important moment for the FDA," he said in a prepared statement released by the agency.
Consumer groups and health researchers agree that the FDA is at a critical point in its history.
In addition to a slew of recent government reports revealing problems with the agency's oversight of both clinical trials and the importing of contaminated drugs from China, Congress is now considering adding oversight of tobacco to the FDA's portfolio.
In recent years, the agency has had difficulty retaining and recruiting scientists, as some have complained that their judgment about the safety of drugs was overridden by political appointees with a pro-pharmaceutical industry bias, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of health research for Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group and frequent FDA critic.
"There's a nefarious relationship between the FDA and the drug industry," he said. "That creates a poor scientific environment, and they've lost a lot of good people because of it."
Wolfe, a seasoned public health advocate, said he was not familiar with Torti. But Torti will report to "the worst FDA commissioner we've ever had," Wolfe said.
"Unless the person who is chief scientist drives themselves - without impediment from the commissioner - to do a much better job as a regulatory agency, then we're in a lot of trouble."
Torti, 60, knows that becoming the agency's number two in such a politically charged environment will not be easy, friends and colleagues said.
"He has a tough hide," Dr. Jerry Garvin, chair of the medical school's pathology department and deputy director of the cancer center, said of his colleague. "Before he got the job, he was advised that if he wanted a friend in Washington, he had better get a dog."
Torti specializes in cancers that affect the prostate, kidney, bladder and male testes. Von Eschenbach, a doctor who specialized in prostate cancer before arriving at the FDA, knew and respected Torti, Garvin said.
In a statement, von Eschenbach said Torti's "impressive clinical and scientific credentials are an excellent match for the work we do on a daily basis."
Torti, who received his medical degree from Harvard, has been on the faculty of Wake Forest since the early 1990s. His new job begins in May, but he will likely not be away from Winston-Salem for long.
Because the position is a political appointment, his tenure in Washington will probably end with the close of President Bush's second term in January. A new president generally - but not always - selects new people to fill such jobs, generally those who share a similar political outlook.
Though North Carolina voter registration records show Torti does not belong to a party, he has donated exclusively to Republicans since 2000, giving a total of $3,250 to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and $250 to Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.
Garvin, who was appointed interim director of the cancer center in Torti's absence, said that his colleagues at Wake Forest expect him back after a leave of absence of between nine months and a year.
"He's coming back," Garvin said. "Thank goodness."
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668