Susan F. Wood, a women’s health expert, who resigned in protest by the 2005 food and medicine service, accusing the organization grabbing under politics, not approved morning sales in the morning, known as Plan B, died on January 17 at her home in London. He was 66 years old.
The reason was the diverse Glioblastoma multiiforme of brain cancer, said Richard Payne, her husband.
Dr. Wood was an assistant to women’s health commissioner in the FDA during the presidency of George W. Bush When Plan B, a form of emergency contraception, became a point of ignition in the abortions.
A FDA consulting team voted 28-0 in 2003 that the pill was safe for using non-prescription. However, senior officials of the Agency ignored the previous one and refused to approve sales of offshore advice.
Plan B contains high levels of Progestin, a hormone found in ordinary birth control pills, and organism scientists considered it a contraceptive. However, rivals of abortion argued that its use is equivalent to ending pregnancy. They further warned that direct access would lead to incompatible behavior by adolescents, although they did not support this request.
Dr. Wood and others believed that the available emergency contraception would mean less unwanted pregnancies and less abortions.
In August 2005, FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford announced that the Agency was unable to make a decision on whether to authorize the use of Plan B and did not expect to arrive soon.
Dr. Wood accused the body’s leg policy and resigned from a job he had last for five years. In an email to staff, he wrote that he could no longer remain “when the scientific and clinical data, which are fully evaluated and recommended for approval by professional staff here, has been overthrown”.
An exhibition later that year by the Government Bureau, the non -profit Congress research arm, found that senior service officials had rejected sales of off -board sales even before the scientific review was completed. findings.
Dr. Wood addressed the American Union to promote science in 2006 and received a permanent cheer. He criticized the FDA for ignoring science because “social conservatives have excellent unjustified influence”.
Susan Franklin Wood was born on November 5, 1958, in Jacksonville, Florida, one of the four children of Dr. Jonathan Wood, Surgeon and Betty (Dorscheid) Wood.
He graduated from the bishopric of Jacksonville in 1976 and southwest in Memphis (now College of Rhodes) in 1980, after winning a Ph.D. In biology from the University of Boston in 1989, she shifted her focus to health policy.
In 1990, she received a scholarship as a consultant to the Congress team on women’s issues, a bilateral team. For over five years at Capitol Hill, it has helped promote legislation to increase women’s representation in clinical trials and extend research on breast cancer, infertility and contraception.
In 1995 he became a Policy Director in the Women’s Health Office, part of the Ministry of Health and Human Services. He joined the FDA in 2000 to lead the women’s health section.
Objections to Approval of Plan B for Sales -free sales with zero sales on whether they should be available to younger teenagers. The manufacturer, Barr Laboratories, suggested restriction of sales to people 16 and over.
A FDA senior employee told Dr. Wood that the drug was on the right track to gain non -prescription for those 17 years and over, Dr. Wood reminded of an oral story that he had made for the organization in 2019.
“I heard it with my own little ears,” he said. “And everyone was waiting for the decision to come out silently.”
“But,” added, “the decision never came out.”
In one Friday afternoon, Dr. Crawford announced that an age -free age limit would be difficult for pharmacies to manage. The issue, he said, needed more study. In the meantime, the use of non -prescription was not approved for anyone.
Dr. Wood left next Tuesday. She expects her decision to go mostly unnoticed. Instead, the media immediately reported to it.
“We ended up spending the next eight months to really travel and talk about it,” he said. “He advised his perception of whether you could trust the government at that time.”
In 2006, Dr. Wood joined the Milken Institute of Public Health School at George Washington University as a research professor. He became a full professor in 2017 and directed the Jacobs Women’s Institute there. She and her husband moved to Isle of Mull in Scotland in 2017, with a second home in London. He continued to teach remotely until he retired in 2022.
In addition to her husband, she survives a daughter, Bettie Wood Payne.
Conflicts over Plan B fades, overshadowed by more controversial episodes of abortion policy. Plan B eventually won the approval of 2013, although some states allow pharmacists to refuse to distribute it.
In 2019, Dr. Wood said fears that easy access to a pill in the morning would be a “dangerous, radical, crazy” thing that proved to be excessive.
“Once it’s over the bench, it’s not a big deal,” he said. “And, for sure, this happened. It’s not a big deal.”