FDA new director confirmed! NCI director Norman shaples will take over Gottlieb

The trump administration announced Tuesday that it would appoint Norman e "ned" Sharpless, now director of the National Cancer Institute, to head the FDA next month Health minister Alex Azar confirmed the news at hearings in the house of Representatives and the business health Subcommittee Less than a week ago, Mr Gottlieb, the current head, announced plans to leave in early April "Dr shaples' deep research background and expertise will make him a strong FDA leader," Azar said in a statement "FDA has made a lot of efforts in drug approval, crack down on opioid drug crisis, modern food safety and solve the rapid increase in the use of e-cigarettes for teenagers In the future, the agency will also continue to focus on these things " Shaples is a medical scientist who worked at the University of North Carolina's leenberg comprehensive cancer center before taking over NCI in October 2017 He is an active supporter of Gottlieb's push to increase tobacco and e-cigarette regulations Although it's not clear if sapris will lead the FDA for a long time, he has been seen as one of the options to replace Gottlieb In the staff nomination list provided to FDA, Gottlieb said shaples was already familiar with FDA Shaples is also familiar with the biotechnology industry and the drug development process He co founded two early biotech companies: g1therapeutics, an anticancer drug developer, which raised $108.6 million in an IPO in 2017, and healthspan diagnostics, a blood test developer "One of the things that appeals to me most about the White House is that in addition to doing research and being the director of the cancer center, I have some creative commercialization work, especially in promoting the commercialization from the basic research laboratory to the second stage." In an interview in 2018, shaples said he had just taken over NCI In his position at the National Institutes of health, shaples often talks about how his agency works with the FDA When he was at NCI, he mentioned that his ability to promote regulation and improve cancer care was limited He has expressed interest in using artificial intelligence, including IBM Watson and its cancer care tools, to improve treatment He realized that the technology was now very limited "NCI is still at an early stage in this area." "The FDA has a lot of regulatory issues to address in this area," he said last year After shaples became FDA director, Douglas lawey, NCI's deputy director, will be director of the Cancer Institute.