The big news yesterday was that the FDA report on its audit of Celltex went public and the report was a laundry list of FDA concerns.
However, another very surprising and significant element of the story went largely unnoticed.
I’m talking about Governor Rick Perry’s reaction to the story.
Rick Perry was asked to comment on the FDA audit of Celltex and his response was a shocker to anyone following this story.
Keep in mind that Perry’s own doctor Stan Jones is a co-founder of Celltex and Celltex was instrumental (harvesting and banking the cells) in Perry’s own stem cell transplants.
Thus, the expectation of many was that Perry would publicly support Celltex. Most people thought that in his public response to the FDA audit that he would defend Celltex and perhaps indicate that Texas would not put up with federal intervention into Celltex’s business. Something along these lines. At least a hint to that effect….
Instead Perry’s spokesperson is quoted by Houston Chronicle reporter Todd Ackerman as stating that the harsh FDA audit is:
a matter “between the company and FDA.”
Wow.
This is big news and in my opinion represents for the first time Perry publicly distancing himself from Celltex. In my open letter to Perry a few weeks back this was one of my recommendations to him, but I don’t take credit for this. I think Perry is a savvy person and simply realized it was time to make this move.