HHS' assistant secretary for legislation will be Jerry Klepner, who has served as director of legislation for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees since 1987. A former staff director on the House Post Office and Civil Service/Compensation and Employee Benefits Subcommittee, Klepner practiced law with the Washington, D.C. firm of Anderson, Benjamin, Read & Haney before joining AFSCME. The selection of Klepner was included in a batch of subcabinet appointments announced by the Clinton Administration Feb. 23. As director of HHS' legislative efforts, Klepner probably will have a key role in selling the Administration's health care reform plan on Capitol Hill. Joining him in the legislative office will be Principal Deputy Secretary for Legislation Richard Tarplin, previously the staff director of the Senate Labor & Human Resources/Subcommittee on Children, Family Drugs and Alcoholism; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation/Congressional Liaison Kimberly Parker, director of PAC and constituency services for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation/Health Karen Politz, a former aide to Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). Other topsiders named include Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation David Ellwood, PhD; HHS Deputy Secretary Walter Broadnax, PhD; General Counsel Harriet Rabb; and Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Avis LaVelle. Ellwood is the academic dean and professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He serves on various National Academy of Sciences panels, including the National Forum on the Future of Children and Their Parents and the Committee on the Status of Black Americans. Reporting to Ellwood are: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Judith Feder, PhD; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation/Health Policy Kenneth Thorpe, PhD; and Senior Policy Analyst Atul Gawande. All three were key members of the Clinton health transition team and subsequently moved to HHS to begin work on developing health care reform proposals. Broadnax, an Arkansas native, served as a Clinton transition team leader in personnel and management issues. Since 1990, he has been president of the Center for Governmental Research, a Rochester, N.Y.-based non-profit consulting organization. Rabb has been with Columbia Law School since 1971, serving as vice dean, professor of law and social responsibility, director of clinical education and assistant dean for urban affairs. LaVelle, the top spokesperson for HHS, was the national press secretary for the Clinton-Gore campaign. From 1989-92, she served as press secretary for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. The Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs is Anne Lewis, who will report to LaVelle.
Join thousands of industry professionals who rely on Pink Sheet for daily insights
Already a subscriber?
Advanz Pharma would have had to show that the European Commission’s decision to revoke Ocaliva’s conditional marketing approval risked causing serious and irreparable harm, according to lawyers from Van Bael & Bellis.
This is your final call to participate in the survey to better understand our subscribers’ content and delivery needs. The deadline is 20 September.
We are conducting a survey to better understand our subscribers’ content and delivery needs. If there are any changes you’d like to see in coverage topics, article format, or the method in which you access the Pink Sheet – or if you love it how it is – now is the time to have your voice heard.
A new pilot aims to take Brazil closer to ‘digital transformation.’
Data is “the new oil,” but its use will challenge regulators, while inertia is the biggest disrupter of all for European regulators, according to European Medicines Agency chiefs past and present.
Pharma firms are being encouraged to respond to a European Commission consultation on planned updates to its good manufacturing practice standards which reflect the “rapid advancement” of modern technologies, like AI and digital systems, in drug manufacturing.
China has announced a raft of new measures to encourage innovative drug development across the product life cycle, including using insurance data to differentiate new therapies and applying commercial insurance to selected novel products.
