Editor's Corner

Dr. Susan Wood's decision to resign as the FDA's top official for women's health should be a warning sign to the entire drug development industry. As she noted, FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford's decision to indefinitely delay any decision on pushing the morning-after contraceptive to OTC is purely the result of abortion politics, and partisanship should have no role to play in the world of pharmaceutical approvals. The great irony here, as she notes, is that Plan B will help women avoid unwanted pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions in this country. In the future, of course, it will grow increasingly easy to introduce pure partisanship in drug decisions, and it will get easier to ignore the opinions of its expert panels. And that should frighten us all.

On another note, FierceBiotech will not publish Monday, September 5, in observance of Labor Day here in the US. We'll be back on Tuesday, September 6. Enjoy your long weekend! - John Carroll