Biden Chooses Robert Califf to Lead F.D.A., Despite Drug Industry Ties
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Sheila Kaplan,
The New York Times
| 11. 12. 2021
WASHINGTON — President Biden announced on Friday that he would nominate Dr. Robert M. Califf, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to lead the agency again. His decision ends nearly a year of political wrangling as the White House vetted then dropped several candidates after complaints that some were too close to the pharmaceutical industry.
In the end, White House officials might have concluded that they could not find a suitable candidate with no industry ties. Dr. Califf, 70, a respected academic and clinical trial researcher who ran the agency during the last year of the Obama administration, has long been a consultant to drug companies and ran a research center at Duke University that received some funding from the drug industry.
The agency is sorely in need of permanent leadership. Since Margaret Hamburg, who served as commissioner for most of the Obama administration, left in 2015, the F.D.A. has had seven different commissioners — some acting, some permanent — including Dr. Califf, who served for just 11 months after Dr. Hamburg’s departure. And recently, its reputation...
Related Articles
By Megan Mineiro and Caroline Kitchener, The New York Times | 10.05.2025
Kathleen Whipple and her husband had dreamed of a big family, but struggled to conceive.
Upon his return from an overseas deployment with the Navy, the couple learned from a fertility doctor that her husband’s sperm count was half of...
By Karin Hammarberg, Alex Polyakov, Catherine Mills, and Karinne Ludlow, The Conversation | 10.03.2025
Reports of several cases of embryo and sperm mix-ups have put the Australian fertility industry in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
These bungles have raised serious questions about the industry’s current model of self-regulation, and demonstrate a lack...
By Karin Hammarberg and Catherine Mills, BioNews | 10.13.2025
The Australian fertility industry has been rocked by several recent cases of embryo and sperm mix-ups. With a lack of transparency about what clinics do to prevent such errors recurring, trust and confidence in the industry and how it is...
By Katherine Bourzac, Nature | 09.25.2025
A judge in New York rejected a request on 23 September to disqualify the use of cutting-edge DNA sequencing as evidence in a case against an alleged serial killer. The ruling paves the way for a type of DNA analysis...