Susan F. Wood, who resigned from the FDA under Plan B, died at 66

Susan F. Wood, a women's health expert who resigned in 2005 in protest from the Food and Drug Administration, paradoxically in politics by not approving the over-the-counter sale of morning pills known as Plan B. He criticizes him. He passed away on January 17th at his London home. She was 66 years old.

The cause was multisporioglioblastoma, a brain tumor, her husband, Richard Payne.

Dr. Wood was the FDA's women's health aide during George W. Bush's presidency when Plan B, a form of emergency contraception, became a flashpoint in the abortion war.

The FDA advisory committee voted 28-0 in 2003. However, senior agency officials ignored precedents and refused to approve commercial sales.

Plan B contains high levels of progestins, hormones found in regular contraceptives, and agency scientists thought it was a birth control pill. However, abortion opponents argued that its use was equivalent to ending the pregnancy. They further warned that access would immediately lead to indiscriminate behaviour by teenagers, but the claims were not supported.

Dr. Wood and others believed that accessing emergency contraception without a prescription meant fewer unwanted pregnancies and fewer abortions.

In August 2005, FDA Commissioner Leicester M. Crawford hoped the agency could not reach a decision on whether to allow the company to use Plan B commercially, and would soon reach it. It was announced that it was not.

Dr. Wood denounced politics and resigned from the job she had for five years. In an email to staff, she wrote that “when scientific and clinical evidence is fully evaluated and approved by professional staff, and when it is rejected” can no longer remain. .

The report, the nonpartisan investigation unit of the Congress, the government's accountability office, later that year, said that the best agency staff refused to sell commercially even before the scientific review of Plan B was completed. I found that. Authorities disputed the findings.

Dr. Wood addressed the American Society for Progress in Science in 2006, where he received a standing ovation. She criticized the FDA for ignoring science because “social conservatives are so overpowered.”

Susan Franklin Wood was born on November 5th, 1958 in Jacksonville, Florida. They are one of four children, Dr. Jonathan Wood, a surgeon, and one of Betty (Dorseed) Wood, who managed the house.

She graduated from Anglican School in Jacksonville in 1976 and in 1980 she graduated from Memphis (now the University of Rhodes) from Memphis (now the University of Rhodes). After completing her PhD, she shifted her focus to health policy in 1989 at Boston University's biology.

In 1990, she received a fellowship for Women's Affairs, a bipartisan group, as a scientific advisor to the Congressional Association. Over five years at Capitol Hill, she helped to increase female representation in clinical trials and promote laws to expand research into breast cancer, infertility and contraception.

In 1995, she became Policy Director for the Women's Health Bureau, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. She joined the FDA in 2000 and led the Women's Health Department.

Opposition to Plan B approval for store sales was zero regarding whether it was available to young teens. Barr Laboratories, the manufacturer of medicine, has proposed limiting sales to those over 16 years old.

A senior FDA official told Dr. Wood that the drug is on track to win non-prescription approval for people over the age of 17, oral, Dr. Wood recorded with his agency in 2019. It reminded me of history.

“I heard it with my tiny ears,” she said. “And everyone waited quietly for a resolution to come into play.”

“But,” she added, “this decision never came.”

On Friday afternoon, Dr. Crawford announced that over-the-counter sales age restrictions make it difficult to manage pharmacies. He said the issue needs more research. In the meantime, no one had approved non-prescription use.

Dr. Wood left the following Tuesday. She was hoping for the decision to go barely noticeable. Instead, news media reported immediately.

“I'm going to really travel and talk about this for the next eight months,” she said. “It influenced the perception of whether or not you could trust the government at the time.”

In 2006, Dr. Wood joined George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health as a research professor. She became a full professor in 2017, where she served as director of the Jacobs Institute for Women Health. She and her husband moved to Isle of Mal, Scotland in 2017, where they had a second residence in London. She continued teaching remotely until her retirement in 2022.

In addition to her husband, she was survived by her daughter, Betty Wood Payne.

Comments surrounding Plan B ultimately declined, hiding in more controversial episodes of abortion politics. Plan B ultimately won over-the-counter approval in 2013, but some states allow pharmacists to refuse to distribute it.

In 2019, Dr. Wood said that easy access to morning pills would prove to be exaggerated that “dangerous, radical, crazy.”

“If it was on the counter, that's not a big deal,” she said. “And of course, that's what happened. That's not a big deal.”