Andrew von Eschenbach has been named acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration following the resignation of former commissioner Lester Crawford last week.

Von Eschenbach has been director of the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, since January 2002. Before that, he worked as a doctor and executive at the M D Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Von Eschenbach has said that he intends to act as both head of the FDA and director of NCI.