[ad_1]
Dr Stephen M. Hahn, who became Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration just weeks before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, resigned on Wednesday as President Biden’s administration began.
Dr Janet Woodcock, longtime head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Review, will serve as the acting commissioner, according to an agency official.
As of May, Dr Woodcock had been assigned to Operation Warp Speed, the former administration’s program to accelerate the development of vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus.
She has worked at the FDA since 1986, holding various key positions, including Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Commissioner.
The Biden administration has yet to appoint a permanent commissioner, but Dr Woodcock is one of the candidates under consideration, according to several advisers to the new president’s transition team. Dr Amy Abernethy, Senior Deputy Commissioner, is also under review, as is Dr Joshua Sharfstein, a former agency official, who is associate dean of public health practice and community engagement at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr Hahn’s resignation was expected, as part of the routine departure of senior politicians that occurs when a new administration takes office. In a farewell message to FDA staff on Wednesday, he wrote: “As a nation and as a public health agency, we have faced great challenges and times of turbulence over the past decade. past year, especially those resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Through it all, FDA employees have played a critical role in helping respond to the disease with very real scientific breakthroughs like the authorization of the first OTC without a prescription. [over the counter] Covid test, authorization and approval of an antiviral agent and the first two Covid-19 vaccines authorized by the FDA. “
Dr Hahn has faced widespread criticism during the pandemic, accused of giving in to political pressure from President Trump and the White House by granting emergency use permissions for unproven treatments like the hydroxychloroquine which have not provided evidence of their effectiveness. In recent months, he has chaired the reviews of the first licensed vaccines against the virus, Pfizer and Moderna products.
In the past, under other presidential administrations, Dr. Woodcock, 72, competed for the most senior position in the FDA. She was first brought to the pharmaceuticals division of the FDA by Dr David Kessler, the former FDA commissioner who was appointed scientific director of vaccination efforts for the Biden administration, which will no longer be called Operation. Warp Speed.
The Biden administration has not indicated when an FDA commissioner will be appointed.
[ad_2]
Source link