David W. Feigal, Jr.

San Diego, CA, December 21, 2004 -- The inaugural talk in The von Liebig Forum speaker series is now available for on-demand viewing over the Internet. The talk by David W. Feigal, Jr., first aired on UCSD-TV on November 15. Feigal is the former Director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

The 59-minute program is viewable from UCSD-TV's website at http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/9086.rm. [RealOne or Realplayer required]

Feigal was the kickoff speaker of The von Liebig Forum, a new series of headliner seminars sponsored by the William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement. During the program, Feigal talks about the FDA's role in protecting consumers and how innovators can bring new products to market.

Subsequent to his appearance at UCSD, Feigal was featured by the Wall Street Journal Online in a Q&A about "how best to monitor drugs after they're FDA-approved." Asked about the major shortcomings of the FDA in the drug approval process, Feigal is quoted as saying that "the post-market safety data isn't routinely incorporated into the review process of new uses...  What I really think gives you a much better system is when the same person who is responsible for approving product has a role in the review of the safety of the product and the recalls of the product and the inspections of the product. That isn't how the FDA over time has gotten organized. It's almost gotten organized as piecework." The WSJ Online interview can be viewed at http://online.wsj.com/search#SB110320998958702083 [subscription required].

The October 20 von Liebig Forum took place in the Y.C. Fung Auditorium in Powell-Focht BioEngineering Hall. The session was open to UCSD faculty, staff, students and industry.

Feigal's talk  covers new aspects of FDA regulations including views on the changing regulatory environment; the potential impact of changes on present and future innovation; perceived conflict between regulation and innovation; and much more.