FDA’s New Acting Commissioner

Dr. Norman E. Sharpless

Posted: May 27, 2019

After Scott Gottlieb’s resignation as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in early March, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II appointed Norman E. Sharpless, MD, as acting commissioner. Dr. Sharpless, a physician–scientist, is currently the director of the National Cancer Institute.

In a statement, Mr. Azar said that the FDA will not relent in its current efforts regarding drug approvals and combating both the opioid epidemic and the dramatically increasing e-cigarette youth-use rates.