WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has nominated the Food and Drug Administration’s second-highest ranking official, Dr. Robert Califf, to lead the agency, which regulates consumer products ranging from medications to seafood to cigarettes.
The White House made the announcement late Tuesday in a statement naming officials nominated for various federal posts
If confirmed by the Senate, Califf will take the reins at a critical juncture for the agency, which is under pressure from Republicans in Congress to streamline regulations for medical products.
Califf, 63, joined the FDA as deputy commissioner in March after more than 30 years as a prominent cardiologist and medical researcher at Duke University. His nomination to head the agency was widely anticipated after former commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced she would step down just days after appointing Califf to the role of deputy commissioner. He currently oversees the FDA’s centers for drugs, devices and tobacco products.
Although he has spent most of his career in academia, Califf is deeply versed in FDA issues, especially the clinical testing of drugs and medical devices. He previously served on expert committees that advise the FDA and was considered for the commissioner’s job at least twice before — once under President George W. Bush and once earlier in the Obama administration.
The FDA commissioner is subject to pressure from an array of outside interests, including multinational corporations, politicians, consumer advocates and medical professionals. Most modern FDA commissioners have stayed on the job for less than three years.
As head of the FDA, Califf would inherit a raft of projects and potential challenges, including unfinished tobacco regulations, ongoing food safety and labeling reforms and proposals from Republican lawmakers focused on streamlining drug reviews.
In July the House of Representatives passed a sweeping bill that would require the FDA to streamline drug approvals, consider more flexible forms of clinical trials and incorporate more patient input into its decision-making processes. The bill was praised by industry groups but criticized by safety advocates who warned it could erode safeguards against dangerous and ineffective products.
The Senate is expected to take up its own version of the legislation this fall.
Califf’s background as a drug researcher could make him receptive to some of the reforms coming out of Congress, though he has not testified or spoken publicly about the legislation.
Complaints that the FDA is too slow in approving new products are a perennial theme for both the drug and medical device industries, though recent data undercut the criticism of FDA as a plodding bureaucracy.
The FDA approved the highest number of new drugs last year in nearly two decades. Additionally, two-thirds of the drugs approved by the FDA last year went through streamlined processes, the highest proportion ever. Additionally, data show that the agency’s typical time for approving drugs is significantly faster than Europe’s or Japan’s.
