NIH Chief Announces Plans to Resign : Health: Bernadine Healy is leaving at the request of Clinton officials. Another Bush holdover, David Kessler, will remain in charge of the FDA.
Dr. Bernadine P. Healy, the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health, is resigning at the request of Clinton Administration officials, ending a tenure marked by controversy over her strong stands and sometimes confrontational style.
But the Administration will retain another top health officer held over from the George Bush Administration, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David A. Kessler, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed.
In a meeting several weeks ago with HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, “it was made clear that it would be best for the President to choose his own NIH director,” Healy said Friday at a press conference. She said she had not met with President Clinton.
Healy will remain at the NIH until June 30, while the Administration searches for a successor, and then is expected to return to her former job with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a medical and research facility in Ohio, where she was chairwoman of the research institute and a staff member in the cardiology department.
While it is not surprising that an incoming Administration--particularly of another party--would seek to fill top jobs with its own people, the NIH director’s post traditionally has been immune to shifts in political power.
But Healy, 48, a cardiologist appointed by Bush in March, 1991, has come under heavy criticism from members of the scientific community and lawmakers who believed she brought politics into her job as head of the world’s premier biomedical research facility.
She was criticized, for example, for supporting the Bush Administration’s ban on federally funded fetal tissue research--originally imposed by the Ronald Reagan Administration--after having opposed it before she came to the NIH.
Although she continued to insist after taking the NIH job that her personal views on fetal tissue research had not changed, she nevertheless obeyed a White House order to lobby against legislation that would have overturned the ban--and many hold her responsible for Congress’ inability to override a Bush veto.
One of Clinton’s first acts as President was to lift the ban.
Healy acknowledged Friday that “the fetal tissue issue dogged NIH the whole way,” saying it was unfortunate that the agency had been drawn into the abortion debate. “NIH has become a bit of the Beirut of abortion and of fetal tissue,” she said.
She also reportedly irritated Clinton Administration officials by lobbying hard to keep her job.
Kessler, 41, a pediatrician and an attorney, shook up a once moribund FDA by stepping up enforcement of agency regulations and hastening the pace of procedures to approve new drugs, particularly those used to treat life-threatening conditions, such as AIDS and cancer, and ailments for which there are no alternative therapies.
He also led a major overhaul of the nation’s food labels despite major objections from Bush’s Agriculture Department.
He has garnered widespread support from a cross section of groups, including industry, the research community, and activist and consumer organizations, many of whom lobbied for him to be retained.
Healy launched a $625-million research project to study the health problems of older women and began designing a strategic plan for the agency that would lay out objectives to take it into the next century.
But her sometimes combative style made enemies, particularly on Capitol Hill. She clashed on several occasions with Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), the powerful chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and head of a subcommittee that oversees the NIH.
Dingell issued a terse statement after Healy’s departure was announced, saying only: “I wish her well in her undertakings.”
Healy said in a statement Friday that she believes “the NIH is a national treasure.”
“The fruits of NIH’s medical research have proven to be among our nation’s greatest achievements, saving countless lives and profoundly improving the human condition. . . . The NIH claims a piece of my soul and will always have a place in my heart.”
White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos said Healy had “served her country well,” and that the Administration would be “moving immediately to . . . work with the scientific community and pick the best replacement.”
Shalala said Healy “has been a strong leader and a strong advocate for NIH progress.” Shalala added that she would be “conferring with scientific leaders and the White House” to establish a process for choosing Healy’s successor.
