Washington (AP) – The Food and Drug Administration appointed a long -term pharmaceutical manager on Monday to lead the agency’s drug program, the youngest in a number of management changes to the agency.
The FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced that Dr. George Tidmarsh, a cancer and children’s specialist, will lead the agency’s center for drug assessment and research, which regulates the security and effectiveness of all US medicines.
His appointment takes place one month after the incumbent director of the center, Dr. Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, announced her retirement.
As a top drug regulatory authority of the agency, Tidmarsh is accused of complying with a number of macary and his boss’s obligations, the Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the review of the security pille Mifepriston. The FDA also checks certain uses of other long -established medication, including antidepressants and hormone replacement for menopause.
Tidmarsh founded and headed several pharmaceutical companies, including Horizon Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of anti -inflammatory drug against arthritis. He was also an extraordinary professor at Stanford University.
The FDA drug center is the largest unity of the agency. Almost 6,000 employees are responsible for reviewing the security and effectiveness of recent medication and monitoring the exploit and marketing of older medicines.
Around 2,000 FDA employees were released as part of Widescale cuts in the Federal Health workforce supervised by Kennedy. More than 1,000 others have completed buyouts or previous retirement, while many others are looking for recent jobs. The descents have threatened basic FDA operations, including the timely review of recent medication.
The FDA drug center has had no constant director since January than Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni Day before the office of President Donald Trump.
In the past few months, almost all management positions of the FDA have turned over either due to pensions, resignations or measures by administrative officers who put them on the administrative leave.
The directors of the FDA Center usually pose their positions for years or even decades and serve in several administrations, whether republican or democratic.
In May, Makary called Dr. Vinay Prasad, a prominent critic of the Covid reaction of the FDA, to lead the agency’s vaccine center. He was also appointed in the post of the FDA chief Medical Officer. Prasad joined the agency after his predecessor, the long -time Vaccine boss Dr. Peter Marks, was forced in March.
The head of the FDA tobacco center was also forced to withdraw in April. A eternal replacement has not yet been named.
___
The Department of Health and Science Department of Associated Press receives support from the Department of Science Education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is only responsible for all content.
