ROCKVILLE and BETHESDA, Md. – Two leading contamination-control organizations-The Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA)-have announced new leadership.

Dr. Steven Galson has been named permanent director of the FDA’s (www.fda.gov) CDER. He joined the Agency in 2001 as CDER Deputy Director, and most recently served as Acting Center Director. A Rear Admiral in the commissioned corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), Dr. Galson will lead the more than 2,200 CDER employees in evaluating and approving prescription and over-the-counter drugs for their safety. He will also oversee CDER’s national and international programs in pharmaceutical regulation. Before joining the FDA, Dr. Galson was director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Science Coordination and Policy, Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.

Meanwhile, the PDA (www.pda.org) has selected Robert Myers as its new president, succeeding Neal Koller. Myers has served as acting president since April. A member of the PDA board of directors from 1984 to 2003, and its chairman from 2000 to 2001, Myers has been instrumental in the founding of the PDA’s Training and Research Institute. He was a long-time executive with Schering-Plough, a worldwide research-based pharmaceutical company, where his responsibilities included production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and sterile, solid, liquid and vaccine products in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Since 2002, Myers has provided consulting services globally. Recently, he was named to the U.S. Pharmacopeia’s International Health Expert Committee through 2010.