Trump selects Stephen Hahn of MD Anderson official as next FDA chief

Dan Sfera
Dan Sfera
Nov 7 · 3 min read

Head Honcho

President Donald Trump has chosen Stephen Hahn, an oncologist and top official at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the White House revealed on Friday. Hahn, who was thought to be the frontrunner for the position, will be replacing acting commissioner Ned Sharpless, pending Senate confirmation.

Sharpless has been in charge of the agency since early April, when Scott Gottlieb resigned from the position unexpectedly. Sharpless’ term is set to expire on Friday. While Hahn undergoes the confirmation procedure, Brett Giroir, who is currently an assistant secretary of health, will take over FDA leadership on an interim basis.

In choosing Hahn, the President picked a candidate whose experience is considerably different from previous FDA commissioners. Unlike those predecessors — notably Gottlieb, Robert Califf and Margaret Hamburg — Hahn has not previously served in top health policy jobs. Instead, he has come up through the ranks at The University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he is now serving as chief medical executive, a senior position that entails overseeing the hundreds of clinical trials that are performed at the hospital.

Hahn’s focus is radiation oncology, a segment of cancer medicine that uses radiation to reduce or remove tumors. Before he joined MD Anderson as department chair in 2015, he was employed in a similar role at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

If Hahn is confirmed as head of the FDA, he will take a major role in developing the government’s response to public health crises, especially in the areas of the epidemic of opioid overdoses and addiction, as well as growing concern over the dangers of e-cigarettes.

Hahn will be the nation’s top drugs regulator at a point when both the White House and Congress are attempting to limit drug pricing. Another key issue for the FDA is balancing historical standards of safety and efficacy with efficient ways to speed drugs to patients in need.

Hahn has expressed his views in more than 200 studies and articles that he has authored or co-authored. In one published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2008, Hahn and three co-authors from the University of Pennsylvania argue strongly in favor of conducting randomized controlled trials of proton therapy, a form of radiation technology. Another article from 2011 concerns the need for comparative effectiveness research in radiation therapy.

Although Hahn was long rumored to be the President’s choice, the White House waited as long as possible to announce the nomination. Under federal rules, Sharpless would not be allowed to serve as acting commissioner for more than 210 days, a timeline that ran out on Friday.

Sharpless will go back to his previous position as director of the National Cancer Institute. He was also in consideration for the top FDA position. He had the support of four previous FDA commissioners, who wrote a letter to Trump recommending him.

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