...

After the administrative transition of the DBS from the NIH to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1972, Dr. Parkman stayed on. He became the Deputy Director of what was then called the FDA Bureau of Biologics in 1973, a position he held until 1982, moving to the first floor of Building 29. In the 1980s, biologics underwent a series of organizational and name changes at the FDA. From 1982 to 1984 he was the Scientific Director of the FDA National Center for Drugs and Biologics, and from 1984 to 1987, Dr. Parkman was the Deputy Director at the FDA Center for Drugs and Biologics. In 1987, Dr. Parkman became Director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), the name by which biologics went by from then to the present, and he served in this role until retirement in 1990. 

As Scientific Director, Dr. Parkman oversaw all of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research’s scientific programs and its intramural research, and he served as a principal liaison with the scientific community. During his tenure as Center Director, among other activities, the Center approved a Haemophilus b conjugate vaccine for the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in children as young as 18 months. The FDA also doubled the number of inspections of blood banks and concluded an agreement for improved blood processing operations across the nation—actions that followed the recall of two dozen units from two American Red Cross collection centers that indicated exposure to HIV and hepatitis B.  Under Dr. Parkman, the Center developed guidelines to design clinical studies to assess safety and efficacy of allergenic products and it licensed tests to detect antibodies in blood to the Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type I (HTLV-I) retrovirus.

Dr. Parkman was the recipient of numerous awards including the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation’s International Award for Distinguished Scientific Research in 1971, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Meritorious Executive Rank Award in 1980, and an honorary Doctorate of Science degree from his alma mater, the State University of New York in 1990.

...