After nearly two months of speculation and suspense, theWhite House finally named Harold Varmus director of NationalInstitutes of Health.

Although some have questioned his management experience,there is virtually universal praise for his scientific credentials.

"His scientific reputation is outstanding," George Rathman,president and chief executive officer of Icos, told BioWorld."Above all else, that's a science job, and those people who thinkit's purely a management job are missing the point."

Varmus shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in physiology andmedicine with J. Michael Bishop, a colleague at the Universityof California, San Francisco, for their research on genesinvolved in cancer. -- David C. Holzman

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.