Biden Nominated a New Food and Drug Administration Head …Finally

President Joe Biden nominated Dr. Robert Califf, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to head the agency again. Biden’s nomination will now go to Congress, which has to confirm Califf. Since Biden took office, health officials have been waiting for him to appoint a new head after Dr. Stephen Hahn, who was widely criticized by the scientific community for not taking a stronger stand against the Trump Administration’s support of unproven COVID-19 therapies, left the post in January. The FDA is the regulatory agency responsible for reviewing the safety and efficacy of drugs, devices and medical therapies and is the key gatekeeper for evaluating new COVID-19 vaccines and drug treatments. Biden left the position open for nearly maximum time allowable—by law, he had until Nov. 15 to appoint a new commissioner—which some medical experts say have not helped public confidence in the agency’s decisions in the meanwhile. On the other hand, Biden appointed Dr. Rachelle Walensky to take charge of the Centers for Disease Control in December, even before he himself took office. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The FDA has been mired in controversy throughout the pandemic. Early in 2020, agency granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine, the malaria medication that early studies suggested might help to treat COVID-19 and was championed by Trump, but turned out not to provide much benefit. The agency la...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news