The White House is expected to name Sara Brenner, chief medical officer for in vitro diagnostics at CDRH and a veteran of the first Trump administration, as acting commissioner, but the lack of a formal announcement is creating uncertainty. New executive orders on telework and the senior executive service also could impact agency staff.
The Trump Administration dug deeper than usual into the US Food and Drug Administration’s ranks to find the agency’s new acting commissioner.
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FDA Commissioner Martin Makary declared during an interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly that there “should be nothing political” about the US FDA, but it feels like politics is infecting the agency in unprecedented ways about three weeks into his tenure.
Alonza Cruse, director of the Office of Human and Animal Drugs Inspectorate, and two other senior inspection officials are departing, along with Mark Raza, chief counsel from 2021 until January.
Lowell Zeta, a senior counselor at the FDA from 2020 to 2021, returns as deputy commissioner for strategic initiatives. The agency also names a new acting CIO and acting CVM director, but OGD's Ted Sherwood and OPDP's Catherine Gray retired.
Ascertaining the novelty and benefits of Makary’s new drug approval idea – along with what it would take to implement it – requires more clarity on the types of studies he envisions being used to grant and confirm “plausible mechanism’ approvals.
