Andyisms: A Tribute to Von Eschenbach

In an email to employees this week, FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach announced his resignation from the agency, effective January 20. (Read our take on Andy’s tenure in “The Pink Sheet” DAILY.)

Von Eschenbach joined FDA from the National Cancer Institute in December 2005 as an unflappable, avuncular researcher and cancer survivor who loved to espouse on the future of personalized medicine and the promise of the Critical Path Initiative.

Many of his speeches implored FDA stakeholders to accept and embrace change, usually expressed through one of a collection of metaphors he pulled out for public appearances. And so, to mark his departure from FDA a month from now, we’ve assembled a few of his classics over the past three years. Enjoy.

The Racecar Metaphor:

“One of the rigors of FDA is zero tolerance....I have asked people, do you know how a Formula 1 car can go 200 miles an hour and not kill anybody? Zero tolerance. Everything has to be disciplined and precise—every 'i' dotted, every 't' crossed. But the reason for that rigor and discipline is so the car goes faster, not slower.”

The Typhoon Metaphor:

“To find these moments of change where the change that occurs in that trajectory that the organization is on is not a wind or breeze of change, but a typhoon of change—a strategic inflection in which the change process is magnified in orders of magnitude. And when that kind of change occurs...those that grasp it can then capitalize on it experience exponential growth, and those who don’t understand it, go on to extinction.”

The Hurricane Metaphor:

“There’s a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, and since I happen to live in Houston, I think I better pay attention to that, as opposed to, just a little disturbance somewhere.”

The Dirty Diaper Metaphor:

“Creating that future will require change, which will affect all of us, regardless of our role or job title. Unfortunately, the only human organism who actually likes change is a six-month old with a dirty diaper. For most of us, change is what we expect in others.”

The Bridge Metaphor:

“Today we come together as heads of medical product regulatory agencies with the opportunity to collaboratively build a bridge, not a barrier. A bridge that will span the gap between all that promise of science and technology and the delivery of the interventions that can eradicate disease for all of our people. But the bridge must be morphed to accommodate the new science and technology.”

The Locker Room Metaphor, as paraphrased by Sen. Chuck Grassley in a March 12 letter to von Eschenbach:

“I understand that you told the assembled staff that it was important to be ‘a team player’ and that if someone disagreed with the coach, they should keep their opinions and concerns ‘inside the locker room.’ You also said, according to those present, that anyone who spoke ‘outside the locker room’ might find themselves ‘kicked off the team.’”

And finally, our personal favorite: The Butterfly Metaphor:

“In the last decade or two, we have been able to approach disease at the molecular level, where we now can observe and understand disease as a process. This is what I have called the ‘molecular metamorphosis in medicine,’ because it represents a phase change similar to the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. As a result of this metamorphosis, the future of health care will be no more like its past than a butterfly is like a caterpillar.”

Goodbye, Andy. And good luck.