Former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
See also: Government Time Line | Interview Excerpt | Michael Moore Interview | Jeff Wigand
Inside The Tobacco Deal interviewed Dr. Kessler in March 1998.
Kessler: "The real question here is whether, for the first time, this country is going to break the hold that the tobacco industry has on our elected representatives. Whether for the first time in a half century the real power of the industry over the Congress is going change. Whether for the first time Congress can enact a law without asking the industry for permission. That, in and of itself, may be more important than any single provision."
Who?
Kessler admits that a few years ago taking on the tobacco industry would have been an extremely arduous task. He says the FDA was simply not prepared to do it, and he had been repeatedly told that doing so would be foolhardy. Under the Clinton Administration, however, the FDA began asking the right questions, in part because of the help given them by tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand.
Contribution to the Deal
The Food and Drug Administration began focusing on whether nicotine could be classified as a drug under the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. To accomplish this, they asked the tobacco companies to submit evidence of what they knew about nicotine. Since it is against the law to lie to a Federal Agency, some of these company submissions to the FDA are now being looked at by the Justice Department.
Kessler and his FDA team discovered that Brown and Williamson had patents filed in foreign countries. They found a patent filed in Brazil, written in Portuguese, held by Brown and Williamson for a high nicotine, genetically bred tobacco plant that had twice the concentration of nicotine that normal tobacco has.
Expectations
Dr. Kessler is generally opposed to settlement with the tobacco industry and supports tough legislation against advertising to children. Kessler believes the tobacco companies are lying when they say they do not manipulate nicotine. Kessler brought the idea of regulating nicotine to President Clinton through Vice President Gore, who convinced the President that this was the right thing to do.
Personal Information:
Former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under both Presidents Bush and Clinton, from November 1990 to March 1997. On July 1, 1997 he became the Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine.
Affiliations: Public Health Community
Cards they hold (issues):
Cards: Political Access to the White House | Public Support | Regulatory Control Food and Drug Administration, Yale University