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Se October 24, 1980

JOSHUA LEDERBERG

PRESIDENT

Dr. Robert Ebert
President

Milbank Memorial Fund

1 Bast 75th Street

New York, New York 10021

Dear Bob:

Pursuant to our phone conversation, I am enclosing
the letter that I received early last summer from the
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. I have dis-
cussed the idea of a commission on the IND/NDA with a
number of people and have had substantial encouragement
that it would be timely and useful for an independent,
academically based assessment to be mounted.

I would be very grateful to you for your good of-

fices in organizing a meeting of the principle academic-
medical leadership in the metropolitan area for a discus-
sion of these proposals. If this group were to reach a
consensus that the commission was a desirable option, I
would ask it to function as a steering committee for the
designation of the commission leadership and to offer some
help with respect to its staffing and guidelines. It seemed
to me that would be an excellent way to ensure both the in-
tegrity and the credibility of the inquiry.

May I mention that I have discussed this in particular
with Kenneth Melmon and that his enthusiasm for our proceed-
ing with this was most encouraging. I would hope to engage
him, if we do proceed, later on at least as a consultant for
guidance to the group.

Enclosed for the information of our colleagues is the
communication from PMA. I do stress that the particular time
constraints that were placed on the study are understood to
be totally unrealistic and should be disregarded.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg