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Biologics Regulation and ResearchThe People and Work of Buildings 29 & 29A

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preface
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“Real progress is made when industry and regulatory authorities tackle a problem together on the basis of sound scientific principles and hard data that support decision-making.”

  • — Dr. John C. Petricciani

John Petricciani was born in Sacramento, California and had a passion for science from an early age. He received his B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his M.S. in chemistry from the University of Nevada, and his M.D. from Stanford University. He completed his pediatric internship at Buffalo Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, New York.

In 1968, Dr. Petricciani joined the Public Health Service and was assigned to the Division of Biologics Standards (DBS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He was a medical officer in the Laboratory of Pathology. When the DBS was administratively transferred from the NIH to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Petricciani stayed on in Pathology, rising to deputy director of the Division of Pathology by 1976. He continued to advance quickly at the FDA and became the assistant director of clinical research, the special assistant to the FDA Commissioner, and director of the Bio-Research Monitoring Program.

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a professional photo of Dr. John Petricciani in a suit with pink tie

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International Alliance for Biologics Standardization

A photo from the CASSS Hancock Award Ceremony 2017, John C. Petricciani and Wassim Nashabeh, both wearing suits, holding the award

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Photo from CASSS Hancock Award Ceremony 2017, John C. Petricciani, left, and Wassim Nashabeh, CASSS board member, right.

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CASSS

Early in his career at the FDA, Petricciani discovered that bacteriophages (a virus that parasitizes a bacterium by infecting it and reproducing inside of it) were a common contaminant of childhood vaccines. His initial reasoning was that bacteriophages were normal flora in the human intestine and were unlikely to be a serious health risk to children receiving the vaccines. Nevertheless, studies in small animals and monkeys were undertaken and after years of observation, there was no evidence of harm from bacteriophages.

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