If you read our year-end issue, you know that we voted Andrew von Eschenbach "least likely to succeed" as the FDA's new chief.

But who asked us? After months of dilly-dallying, the Senate yesterday confirmed von Eschenbach as the new commish. Not that this is a plum job. The last chief, Lester Crawford, lasted exactly two months before he abruptly resigned--which all became more clear when a federal court charged him with lying about his shares in drug companies.

What the FDA needs is someone tough and smart, with enough integrity to stand up to drug companies and a clear plan for dealing with all the messy conflict-of-interest issues, not to mention the urgent scientific questions--like the one the new British panel will tackle.

It's a lot to handle, and I'm just not sure von Eschenbach is the man for the job. This is after all the same man who, as director of the National Cancer Institute, famously declared that we would cure cancer by 2015.

Overall, this has been a terrible year for the FDA. I hope it didn't just get worse.