Lack of Permanent FDA Chief Delays Big-Picture Work

New drugs and devices will still get approved as the FDA waits for a new leader, but the lack of a permanent commissioner will delay work on implementing 21st Century Cures Act provisions and filling job vacancies.

“The FDA needs a confirmed commissioner. The role includes a significant amount of negotiation among the many influential people with views about policy,” Robert Califf, the most recent Senate-approved leader of the Food and Drug Administration, told Bloomberg BNA in a Feb. 25 email. Califf is now a professor of medicine at Duke University.

Two names being floated as potential nominees ...