Senate Confirms Gottlieb as Next FDA Commissioner

The Senate on Tuesday afternoon voted along party lines to confirm Dr. Scott Gottlieb as the next US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner.

Gottlieb, who faced limited resistance during his Senate committee hearing for his close financial ties to industry, will fill a position most recently held by Dr. Robert Califf, who served under President Barack Obama until last January.

In his confirmation hearing, and unlike several other Trump nominees, Gottlieb made clear that he would not be afraid to offer conflicting views with the administration. He also pledged his full support for the agency’s mission, calling for a "bottom up" approach from career staff and guided by "the science and what’s good for patients."

"There is one standard for safety and effectiveness, and no commissioner can change that," he added, noting his previous work from 2005 to 2007 as FDA deputy commissioner and before that, from 2003 to 2004 as a senior adviser to FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan and as the FDA’s Director of Medical Policy Development.

Gottlieb, a cancer survivor who received his doctor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University in 2002, is a former resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and assistant professor at New York University School of Medicine. He has voiced his opinions frequently through Wall Street Journal opinion pieces on topics including Medicare and generic drugs, and as a contributor to Forbes and other outlets.