Former FDA commissioner David A. Kessler, who refused to allow DTC advertising
during his term, has been fired from his $540,000-a-year position as dean of
the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, but remains
as tenured faculty member.
According to a Washington Post report, the termination came
after what Kessler called years of university questioning “financial
irregularities” that predated his 2003 appointment.
He told the Post he had “tried to solve the problems,
because this money was not being used for the medical center, for program
development, recruitment, medical education.”
The problems, which involved the apparent depletion of about
$90 million in dean's office reserves over 18 months, were reported to the
university by Kessler in 2005, the newspaper said. After an anonymous letter
blamed Kessler for the declining finances, an audit and additional reviews were
conducted but reportedly found no irregularities.
According to a university statement, the medical school has
a policy protecting whistle-blowers, and Kessler had access to a confidential
retaliation grievance procedure. The Post quoted from an email sent to
colleagues by chancellor J. Michael Bishop announcing Kessler's departure from
the dean's office and saying: “I thank him for his energetic service to the
university and his substantial achievements on behalf of UCSF.”
An audit cleared Kessler of wrongdoing, the Post said, and
the university counsel named him as a whistleblower. Kessler gave the newspaper
spreadsheets of school finances and financial analyses he said he prepared for
UCSF.
Kessler said he was asked to resign at the
end of June, but “I refused. I couldn't.”