Immergut, FDA's Top Communications Official, Stepping Down

The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) top communications official, Steven Immergut, is set to leave the agency next month to "pursue other opportunities," according to FDA officials.

Immergut, who currently serves as acting associate commissioner for external affairs (EA), has been with the agency for three years, having joined the agency in 2011 as the assistant commissioner for media affairs. Immergut has been in his current position since December 2013, when he took over for Virginia Cox, who had been the associate commissioner for external affairs since September 2011.

The influential EA position oversees FDA's communications and interactions with members of Congress, industry, trade groups, the public media, trade press and patient groups.

In an email made available to Regulatory Focus by Immergut, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the agency has "benefited greatly" from Immergut's leadership, and that Hamburg herself had "relied a great deal on his strategic vision and wise counsel."

"He will truly be missed," she added.

Replacing Immergut on an interim basis will be Kathleen Quinn, now the deputy director in the Office of External Affairs and a 20-year veteran of the agency. A search for a permanent head of the Office of External Affairs is already under way, Hamburg said.