He was an anesthesiologist who created controversy as an early advocate of requiring prescription drugs to be sold under generic names, instead of brand names, to reduce costs for consumers. He became a national figure for a brief period in 1969 when he was offered the job of director of the Bureau of Medicine in the United States Food and Drug Administration, only to have the appointment withdrawn after pressure from the pharmaceutical industry. At the time, he was associate director of Charity Hospital in New Orleans and a professor at Tulane and Louisiana State Universities, where he taught surgery, oral surgery and pharmacology, as well as anesthesiology. He graduated from Columbia College and was a member of Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons. He practiced several disciplines and was for several years director of the Council on Drugs of the American Medical Association.