The Curious Case of FDA’s Dr. Peter Marks…

by Robert W Malone MD, MS at Malone News

A case study in scientific bureaucrat incompetence and entitlement

Peter Principle (def, Wikipedia): The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to “a level of respective incompetence”: employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.

Why should you care about the curious case of Dr. Peter Marks, MD, PhD? The recently resigned head of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER)? Because Dr. Peter Marks provides an excellent case study of what happens when the government settles for acceptable instead of excellent in scientific administrator (bureaucrat) positions.

It is hard to find experienced, top-tier minds to fill government jobs. The salary is about 2/3 or less of comparable positions in industry, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. Hardly a good way to raise a family and buy that five-bed colonial in Alexandria, McClain, or Potomac that would clearly demonstrate to your associates how important you really are. The work is generally a mundane daily grind, with mounds of paperwork interspersed by various required personnel and management activities. Lots of risk if the administrator veers away from standardized processes. There is little opportunity for innovation or discovery. Great minds crave independence. This dynamic is amply illustrated by the huge raises typically enjoyed by almost all of those who leave the government to take positions in Pharma- even the intellectual hacks and wannabees.

What a senior job in government does provide is power and status. You make decisions that massively impact on regulated industry profit and policy. Everyone wants your attention for their pet project. The press fawns on you because of the forces that drive “access journalism.”

Those who can, do. Those who can’t, regulate.

I am reminded of two examples of widely repeated wisdom concerning academia. The first example is that those who actively seek to become Department Chairperson are usually seeking power over their peers, and are the ones that should be specifically avoided when selecting a Department Chair or Dean position. The second is that the reason academic politics are so nasty is that there is so little to fight over.

After his initial selection as Deputy Director CBER,…