The Sen­ate has vot­ed 72-18 to con­firm Stephen Hahn as the na­tion’s 24th com­mis­sion­er of food and drugs, ush­er­ing in a long­time re­searcher and med­ical ex­ec­u­tive that faced lit­tle back­lash in the con­fir­ma­tion process but was wide­ly seen as a sec­ondary choice for those around the agency.

Four ex-FDA chiefs and dozens of high-pro­file groups had pub­licly en­dorsed for the job act­ing com­mis­sion­er Ned Sharp­less, who served from Scott Got­tlieb’s sur­prise de­par­ture through No­vem­ber 1, when Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump of­fi­cial­ly nom­i­nat­ed Hahn. Got­tlieb al­so gave his sup­port to Sharp­less on Twit­ter.

Brett Giroir has act­ed as com­mis­sion­er since Sharp­less’s de­par­ture.

The MD An­der­son ex­ec, though, large­ly sailed through his con­fir­ma­tion hear­ings last month. Con­tin­u­al­ly ex­tolling the virtues of sci­ence, da­ta and trans­paren­cy, Hahn evad­ed firm an­swers on ques­tions about drug pric­ing, opi­oids and e-cig­a­rettes that have be­come is­sues of na­tion­al de­bate.

“I’m very much in fa­vor of trans­paren­cy,” he said in re­sponse to a ques­tion from Re­pub­li­can Sen­a­tor Su­san Collins on Ab­b­Vie’s con­tro­ver­sial strat­e­gy to keep its Hu­mi­ra patents through 2023.

The vague stance – not un­com­mon for any con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing – fell well short of cost­ing him the job but was a fac­tor in how some sen­a­tors vot­ed. De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Mag­gie Has­san cit­ed non-com­mit­tal an­swers Hahn gave on e-cig­a­rettes and the agency’s his­to­ry with opi­oids in her “no” vote.

“The Food and Drug Ad­min­is­tra­tion has an es­sen­tial mis­sion to pro­tect the health and safe­ty of all Amer­i­cans – and its lead­ers must make de­ci­sions based on sci­ence, not po­lit­i­cal in­flu­ence,” Has­san said in a state­ment.

Many groups long close with the agency, in­clud­ing the Amer­i­can As­so­ci­a­tion for Can­cer Re­search, sup­port­ed Hahn once he was nom­i­nat­ed and pub­licly wel­comed the con­fir­ma­tion.

“The AACR is look­ing for­ward to work­ing close­ly with him and his ex­tra­or­di­nary team at the FDA to help fa­cil­i­tate and ex­pe­dite the de­vel­op­ment and ap­proval of safe and ef­fec­tive treat­ments for can­cer pa­tients,” they said in a state­ment.

Hahn comes with ex­pe­ri­ence in on­col­o­gy’s most cut­ting edge ther­a­pies, but he’s found him­self in con­tro­ver­sy be­fore, most re­cent­ly when Chi­nese re­searchers were dis­missed from MD An­der­son, rais­ing ques­tions about racial pro­fil­ing.

He steps in­to an FDA that faces its own bevy of ques­tions, in­clud­ing as to whether the agency’s push to get drugs to pa­tients as fast as pos­si­ble has gone too far.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended nine drugs for approval this week while also giving thumbs up for six expanded indications, including Novo Nordisk’s approved obesity medication Wegovy for younger people. Wegovy is already approved as an obesity treatment in the EU for adults, and the new indication would allow prescriptions for adolescents aged 12 and older.

RNA biotech GreenLight Biosciences has been handed an offer for potential acquisition.

GreenLight said in a release that it has received a non-binding “indication of interest” from Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire GreenLight’s capital stock for $0.60 per share in cash. The release said any potential agreement between the two parties would depend on certain conditions.

Through a special committee, the biotech will evaluate the offer but added there’s no certainty a deal will go forward. GreenLight will also not make any more announcements until a deal comes through or “otherwise determines” a statement is necessary.

A public T cell biotech’s chief executive has decided to leave the company.

TScan Therapeutics said Friday morning that CEO David Southwell stepped down earlier this week, leaving both his chief executive and board member roles. Filling in is Gavin MacBeath, the company’s CSO and COO. He became the acting CEO on Tuesday, and will continue to remain CSO and COO, TScan’s announcement read.

The German life science group Sartorius will be picking up French contract manufacturer Polyplus for the price of €2.4 billion, or $2.6 billion.

On Friday, Sartorius announced the acquisition through its French subgroup, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, which will be acquiring Polyplus from private investors ARCHIMED and WP GG Holdings IV. Polyplus has 270 employees and produces materials and components that go into making viral vectors that are used in cell and gene therapies. This includes DNA/RNA reagents as well as plasmid DNA. Polyplus has locations in France, Belgium, China and the US.