BioPharma, Policy

Report: HHS Secretary Azar mulls Brett Giroir as next FDA commissioner

President Donald Trump must appoint a new commissioner of the FDA by Nov. 1. Ned Sharpless has served as acting commissioner since Scott Gottlieb's departure in March.

Then-Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response Director Dr. Brett Giroir at an October 2014 press conference in Dallas

President Donald Trump has until November to pick a new leader for the Food and Drug Administration, but his health and human services secretary already has someone in mind, according to a news report.

Citing officials within the Trump administration, BioCentury reported Thursday that HHS Secretary Alex Azar was considering nominating his assistant secretary of HHS for health, Brett Giroir, to the head the agency. By law, Donald Trump must choose a new leader for the FDA by Nov. 1, under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which states that a person can serve as an acting FDA commissioner for 210 days after the previously commissioner vacates the position.

The current acting FDA commissioner is Ned Sharpless, former director of the National Cancer Institute, who theoretically could also be appointed to the position. Sharpless stepped in after the departure in March of former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. Gottlieb has returned to his former employer, the American Enterprise Institute, and also recently joined the board of directors for Pfizer. While there was initially uneasiness with Gottlieb’s appointment as FDA commissioner due to his industry ties, he nevertheless proved an effective manager of the agency, overseeing its first approvals of cell therapies in oncology, gene therapies and RNA-interference drug, in addition to maintaining a more prominent public profile than previous commissioners had.

Shortly following Gottlieb’s resignation, it was reported in The Wall Street Journal that Giroir, along with Sharpless, was seen as a possible successor, with Azar and Gottlieb favoring Sharpless.

Giroir, who was appointed in February 2018, leads development of HHS-wide public health policy recommendations and oversees public health offices, such as the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps – in which he is a four-star admiral – and the Office of the Surgeon General, according to his bio on the HHS website. The corps includes 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in nearly 600 places around the world. He is the former director of the Defense Science Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is a former biotech startup CEO.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

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