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Teva hires Gary Buehler away from FDA


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/16/BUHK1FTGDK.DTL

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Teva hires Gary Buehler away from FDA
Pat Wechsler, Bloomberg News

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world's biggest manufacturer of generic drugs, has hired Gary Buehler, the industry's former top regulator.

Buehler will be vice president of regulatory strategic operations at Teva's U.S. unit, Denise Bradley, a spokeswoman for Teva, said Friday. Buehler, who is deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Pharmaceutical Science, is scheduled to begin Nov. 1 at Teva, Bradley said.

A 40-year federal employee in public health, Buehler served as the head of FDA's Office of Generic Drugs until March. The agency has struggled to develop a system of fees to fund evaluations of new generic drugs. He is retiring Oct. 23 to take advantage of "an opportunity with the generic drug industry," said Sandy Walsh, an FDA spokeswoman, in an e-mail.

Bradley declined to provide any more details.

Generic-drug-makers have been split over lobbying strategies and regulatory issues since June when Teva, based in Israel, dropped out of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association. Teva joined with U.S. firms Perrigo Co. and Hospira Inc. and Canada's Apotex Inc. earlier this year to form the Generic User Fee Coalition.