I am not surprised when Sidney Wolfe declines my invitation to one of Washington, DC's fancy eateries. He is too busy for such frivolity, and besides, they will be so populated with lobbyists and politicos that he would not feel comfortable talking freely. Instead, we walk across the street from his office to a gourmet takeaway, where he picks out some roast turkey breast, Greek yogurt, and a fruit salad. For the past 37 years, Wolfe has been the scourge of the drug industry and a leading critic of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as the head of the Health Research Group of Public Citizen. Under his aggressive leadership, the consumer advocacy group has helped to get some big-time drugs like trovafloxacin (Trovan) and rofecoxib (Vioxx) taken off the market or severely restricted. “The industry is so driven by marketing that red flags concerning safety are often not paid attention to”, says Wolfe. In an appointment that sent an agitated ripple through Washington's pharmaceutical lobbying circles, Wolfe has a 4-year seat on the FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee, an advisory panel that meets when safety questions arise about new drugs or already-approved drugs. “I hope to bring a perspective of what's best for the patient”, says Wolfe, who among other things feels that the FDA should not approve drugs that don't do anything new. He also hopes to act as an advocate for the agency's rank-and-file, pointing to a survey his group did which showed many employees felt that they were not listened to by FDA's leaders. Until now, Wolfe has often had to make his concerns heard in harried open meetings, but with the new position he'll get drug approval documents several weeks in advance and be able to question industry and FDA officials. “I have a chance to intervene at an earlier stage than before”, he says. Although the committee does not have final say over which drugs are approved, it is very influential. As we lunch in the library of Public Citizen, surrounded by medical tomes, including Wolfe's own recently revised Worst Pills, Best Pills, he makes it clear that he will not give special treatment to the Obama administration. “The worst the FDA has ever been was under Clinton”, he says. The FDA was once the gold standard, but “it is now very tarnished”, says Wolfe. But neither does Wolfe have much nice to say about the FDA's current Acting Commissioner, Andrew von Eschenbach, saying he is arguably the worst commissioner in decades, “not very smart”, and overly accommodating to the drug and device companies. “You can't be a regulatory agency and have that much fondness for industry”, he insists. We finish up, and the 71-year-old Wolfe is ready to get back to work.