FDA Names New ODAC Chair

WASHINGTON—Donna Przepiorka, MD, PhD, formerly of the Baylor College of Medicine and now at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, has become chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC). She replaces Stacy Nerenstone, MD, of Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, whose term expired. Dr. Przepiorka’s research has focused largely on transplantation immunobiol-ogy and she has a background in cellular and gene therapy. Her term as committee chair will end on June 30, 2004.

FDA also appointed three new members to 4-year terms on the advisory panel: Bruce D. Cheson, MD, head of hematology at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center; Silvana Martino, DO, head of the Medical Oncology-Breast Cancer Section at the John Wayne Cancer Institute-St. Johns Health Center, Santa Monica, California; and Gregory H. Reaman, MD, executive director of the Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders at Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC.