A healing touch: Dr. Michael Friedman brings a wealth of experience from his days at the National Cancer Institute and the FDA to his new role at City of Hope.LAST May, Dr. Michael Friedman took over as chief executive of City of Hope National Medical Center City of Hope is one of 39 NCI-designated Cancer Centers and is located in the city of Duarte, California. City of Hope comprises an ambulatory and in-patient cancer treatment center as well as a biomedical research facility known as the Beckman Research Institute and the City of Hope , one of 38 federally designated comprehensive cancer centers in the nation. It's a place where cutting-edge treatment is combined with basic and clinical research. It's also a place undergoing big changes. A $185 million hospital is under construction, just three years after the opening of the Center for Biomedicine biomedicine /bio·med·i·cine/ (bi?o-med´i-sin) clinical medicine based on the principles of the natural sciences (biology, biochemistry, etc.).biomed´ical bi·o·med·i·cine n. 1. and Genetics research. An oncologist, Friedman got his start two decades ago at the Cancer Research Institute at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). at San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden Medical School. Later, he evaluated new drug therapies as assistant director of the National Cancer Institute before joining the Food and Drug Administration, eventually serving as acting commissioner for nearly two years. He spent three years in the pharmaceutical industry, then came to City of Hope. Question: What drew you back to the West Coast to take this position? Answer: A headhunter headhunter A popular term for a person–or employment agency who recruits physicians, upper echelon executives or other professionals, matching potential employees with employers called me. As I learned more about City of Hope, then visited and met some of the people, I decided to come. It's a place where I can bring all my skills and experience together in a meaningful way. Q: You've said you were "re-creating how we develop drug products." How? A: If you think about a drug from the initial idea to the beginning of testing to widespread distribution, that period is long, fraught with danger and very expensive. There is not a single revolutionary idea that will take 15 years and $900 million and can be reduced to six months and $1.75, but if you make improvements at each point suddenly you get substantial speeding up of the whole process. Q: Have you always wanted to be in medicine? A: At the age of 10 I read a book called "Micro Hunters" by Paul De Kruif. It was about all the great microbiologists, Pasteur. the curing of yellow fever yellow fever, acute infectious disease endemic in tropical Africa and many areas of South America. Epidemics have extended into subtropical and temperate regions during warm seasons. . I couldn't think of anything more wonderful, and to this day, I can't think of anything more wonderful than being a physician. Q: But you don't see patients any more, do you? A: I don't, and the reason is that patients deserve better. Patients need to know that you are available to them whenever they need you. Q: So how did you end up in administration? A: We were in San Francisco and my wife (who is a doctor) said I have this wonderful job opportunity in Washington. Why don't we go there for a couple of years? And I said sure. So I went there, to the National Cancer Institute where I could still see patients some of the time, but did administration the rest of the time. I was in charge of the clinical grants that cancer centers get. And then slowly but surely, and before I knew it, I was acting commissioner of the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. , which is about as bureaucratic bu·reau·crat n. 1. An official of a bureaucracy. 2. An official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure. bu a job as you could ever find. Q: The City of Hope conducted research that led to the world's first biotechnology drug, synthetic insulin. What new treatments are around the corner? A: Some of the research going on right now with stem cells stem cells, unspecialized human or animal cells that can produce mature specialized body cells and at the same time replicate themselves. Embryonic stem cells are derived from a blastocyst (the blastula typical of placental mammals; see embryo), which is very young is incredibly exciting and has real clinical practical significance in terms of being able to have these plastic multi-potential cells differentiate into different organs and cells in certain situations. There are a whole series of investigators and laboratories working on that. We are also working on HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. treatments and diabetes treatments. Q: How did you make the jump from the National Cancer Institute to the FDA? A: (Former FDA) Commissioner David Kessler David Kessler may refer to:
Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Secretary Donna Shalala Donna Edna Shalala (surname pronounced /ʃəˈleɪlə/; born February 14, 1941) is the president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida. asked me to serve as the acting commissioner. Q: Why weren't you ever sent to the Senate for confirmation as full commissioner? A: That was a decision at the (Clinton) White House. You would have to ask them. But I had what I consider to be a very good two-year run. There are a lot of fully installed commissioners who had tenures far less than mine. Q: what was the job like? A: It's seven days a week. And not only are you working every day but you have conference calls at 2 a.m. when a food safety issue comes up. You are working any time during the day, on religious and national holidays. Q: Did you see much of President Clinton? A: I probably met with him a dozen or so times to work on things. There was a time when on a religious holiday I was called in for a meeting in the Oval Office. It was how we were going to craft an inspection policy for a whole range of imported food items. He is a very impressive person with a tremendous amount of skills. Q: There has been criticism of the revolving door between government regulators and industry. You went to Pharmacia (now part of Pfizer Inc.) after the FDA. Aren't you an example of that? A: As soon as I began speaking to anybody in the industry I informed the ethics office at HHS HHS Department of Health and Human Services. . I never had an interaction that was not fully reviewed and approved. And after I left the agency I did not approach the FDA for longer than the minimum time required, which I think is two years. I did not ever show my face. I didn't even walk in there. Q: Why did they want you? A: You know a lot about (government) processes. How decisions are made. Individual personalities of people. Q: At the FDA, you relaxed rules regulating direct-to-consumer ads on television. Was it the right call? A: As a matter of First Amendment rights, I couldn't see a way not to approve it because I think it is the Constitutional thing to do. But I am critical of direct-to-consumer advertising direct-to-consumer advertising Drug industry The use of mass media–eg, TV, magazines, newspapers, to publicly promote drugs, medical devices or other products which, by law, require a prescription, which targets consumers, with the intent of having a Pt as it currently exists, because I think there is an opportunity that the pharmaceutical companies are missing. Q: How's that? A: I wish they would use it as an educational opportunity for patients as much as an advertisement for a particular drug. If we spent 45 seconds of a 60 second ad talking about the importance of hypertension or some other commonly treatable disease and saying to people, "Go to your doctor, get checked and find out whether you have it because it kills a lot of people, and by the way here is a drug that your doctor may want to consider prescribing," I would be more happy with them. Q: Will there ever be a complete victory over cancer? A: I am not sure we ever will find a complete cure. I hope we find some fundamental insight that is so profound that it allows us to treat everything, but I am afraid we are not going to find that. I think, though, we are going to make wonderful observations about a kind of leukemia leukemia (l  kē`mēə), cancerous disorder of the blood-forming tissues (bone marrow, lymphatics, liver, spleen) characterized by excessive production of immature or mature or a kind of lung cancer lung cancer, cancer that originates in the tissues of the lungs. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women. Like other cancers, lung cancer occurs after repeated insults to the genetic material of the cell. and dramatically change the way we
treat those patients.
Q: Is there anything simple you can do to avoid cancer? A: Don't think about cancer. Think about all the global causes of death and then ask what can you do that will give you the most benefit. If you eat the right things, if you exercise and if you don't smoke cigarettes, then it's what your mother told you: do all things in moderation and take care of yourself. INTERVIEW Dr. Michael A. Friedman Title: President and Chief Executive Organization: City of Hope National Medical Center Born: Port Arthur, Texas Port Arthur is a city in Jefferson County within the Beaumont-Port Arthur metropolitan area and is situated in southeast Texas. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 57,755. , 1943 Education: B.A. in English, Tulane University History Founding/early history The University dates from 1834 as the Medical College of Louisiana.<ref name="facts" /> With the addition of a law department, it became The University of Louisiana ; University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School Career Turning Point: Reading a book about famed microbiologists at age 10 and deciding on a career in medicine Most Admired People: The three Roosevelts--Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor--for their embodiments of the best attributes of American success Hobbies: Reading, cooking, opera Personal: Married with four adult children |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion