Andrew Von Eschenbach

Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D. is chairman of the Manhattan Institute's Project FDA. From September of 2005 to January 2009 he served as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration where he championed an agenda to modernize the FDA. Dr. von Eschenbach joined FDA after serving for four years as director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health where he set an ambitious goal to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer by rapid acceleration and integration of the discovery-development-delivery continuum. At the time of his appointment by President Bush to serve as director of NCI, he was president-elect of the American Cancer Society. Dr. von Eschenbach entered government service after over three decades as a physician, surgeon, oncologist, and executive that included numerous leadership roles from chairman of the department of urologic oncology to executive vice president and chief academic at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Author of more than 300 scientific articles and studies, Dr. von Eschenbach served as one of the founding members of the National Dialogue on Cancer. He has received numerous professional awards and honors. In 2006, Dr. von Eschenbach was named one of Time magazine's "100 most influential people to shape the world," and in both 2007 and 2008, he was selected as one of the Modern Healthcare/Modern Physician's "50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Healthcare." Dr. von Eschenbach earned a B.S. from St. Joseph's University in his native Philadelphia and his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. He served as a Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps. After completing a residency in urologic surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, he was an instructor in urology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed a Fellowship in Urologic Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.