Former FDA head Lester Crawford to plead guilty for failing to disclose his interests in several companies regulated by his agency.
Court papers say Crawford chaired the Food and Drug Administration’s Obesity Working Group while he and his wife owned shares worth at least $62,000 in soft drink and snack food manufacturer Pepsico Inc., based in Purchase, N.Y. In addition, the documents say, he held stock worth at least $78,000 in food product manufacturer Sysco Corp., based in Houston.
While he and his wife owned the stock, the panel Crawford chaired met with representatives from the packaged food industry and gave congressional testimony encouraging manufacturers to relabel serving sizes to give calorie counts greater prominence.
Crawford, a veterinarian, abruptly resigned last fall after an embattled three-year term at the head of the FDA.
His three-year tenure at FDA was marked by increasing criticism and a particularly rocky final 12 months. The painkiller Vioxx was pulled off the market for safety problems, FDA was embarrassed last fall when its British counterparts shut down a supplier of U.S. flu vaccine for tainted shots, and over the summer recalls of malfunctioning heart devices mounted.
Finally last month [August 2005], morale at the agency plummeted when Crawford indefinitely postponed nonprescription sales of emergency contraception over the objections of staff scientists who had declared the pill safe. FDA’s women’s health chief resigned in protest.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Crawford’s sudden need to spend time with his family had a leetle something to do with the massive conflicts of interest.
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