Fischbach favored for NIH

WASHINGTON - White House staff members are confirming rumors inside NIH that Gerald Fischbach, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is President Clinton's choice to replace Harold Varmus as director of the agency.

Varmus left NIH in January to become director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The current acting director, Ruth Kirschstein, is viewed as a placeholder who lacks the stature to make policy decisions. She played the same role in the period between the resignation of former director Bernadine Healy and Senate confirmation of Varmus seven years ago...