FDA Lawyer’s Exit Convinced Senator to Advance Director Nominee

The resignation of a top US Food and Drug Administration lawyer helped convince Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a member of a key US Senate panel, to advance the nomination of FDA commissioner nominee Marty Makary, he said at a Thursday hearing.

Hawley’s vote helped Makary, a Johns Hopkins Medicine surgeon, sail through the committee with a 14-9 vote. The nomination of National Institutes of Health director pick Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University health economist and doctor, also moved ahead after a 12-11 vote.

Makary’s support of former FDA Chief Counsel Hilary Perkins “called into question ...