The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday tapped a family doctor to lead its women’s health office, replacing the previous director who resigned in protest over the agency’s failure to approve over-the-counter emergency contraception.Kathleen Uhl, a supervisor for the agency’s drug division and a practicing physician at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., will take over next month, the FDA said.She will replace Susan Wood, who stepped down from the Office of Women’s Health (OWH) in September after the agency indefinitely postponed a decision on Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s (BRL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) bid to sell its Plan B contraceptive without a prescription.Wood, a career scientist who worked at the FDA for nearly five years, at the time said the delay served to undercut women’s health and that staff who supported nonprescription sales had been overruled.
