The episode mentioned below illustrates that the F.D.A. in practice is not the purely scientific, objective body that it is sometimes portrayed to be in theory.
(p. 29) Susan F. Wood, a women’s health expert who resigned in protest from the Food and Drug Administration in 2005, accusing the agency of knuckling under to politics by not approving over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill known as Plan B, died on Jan. 17 [2025] at her home in London. She was 66.
. . .
An F.D.A. advisory panel voted 28-0 in 2003 that the pill was safe for nonprescription use. But senior agency officials disregarded precedent and refused to approve over-the-counter sales.
For the full obituary, see:
(Note: ellipsis, and bracketed year, added.)
(Note: the online version of the obituary was updated Feb. 8, 2025, and has the title “Susan F. Wood, Who Quit F.D.A. Over Contraception Pill Delay, Dies at 66.”)