Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - January 21, 2009 - (Page 10) IT Matters their jobs done under current mandates and practices. Progress is evolutionary since the heads of the various ‘Centers’ (e.g. CDER, CBER) are unable or unwilling to stick their necks out. The greatest mystery is not knowing who will be Obama’s new FDA commissioner. As always, there are lots of guessing, lobbying and punditry. Given that Obama still has a lot to learn about the FDA, we can only surmise Given that Obama still has a lot to learn about the FDA, we can only surmise that many of the programmes that have already started will continue. that many of the programmes that have already started will continue. Whether new programmes will see the light of day remains to be seen. Finally, we should recognise the confounding factors: Ultimately, what the FDA does will depend on the ability of many influential players to get mindshare for their own objectives. This includes the initiatives that will heavily depend on information technology. Tom Daschle, the new Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) will most likely push for greater control over what benefits are covered, expand comparative effectiveness research, and put the government behind infrastructure investments. Peter Orszag, Obama’s budget director, will try to attack the causes of outof-control healthcare spending like reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity. He may also focus on programmes that absorb a disproportionate part of the healthcare budget. These are just two of the hundreds of individuals who have their own ideas about healthcare. It is just impossible to tell right now which of them will see the light of day. Paraphrasing the famous Chinese proverb, in the coming years expect to be “living in interesting times.” George Laszlo is the managing director of Laszlo Consulting (US), a firm providing strategic IT consulting to the industry. He is also the editor of The Laszlo Letter, an online webzine devoted to operational excellence in life sciences via IT enablement. 11 BioFutures Forging a true industry– academia partnership 13 CALENDAR Next month’s pharma events 3 NEWS Pharma’s next ten years 4 FROM THE EDITOR Obama and Pharma! http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/common/generic/Sitter_Daschle.htm http://www.fda.gov/cber/ http://www.fda.gov/cder/ http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/president_elect_barack_obama_announces_office_of_management_and_budget_dire/ http://laszloletter.typepad.com/ http://laszloletter.typepad.com/
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.