With Trump’s new FDA com­mish nom­i­nee loom­ing, in­dus­try ex­ecs are keep­ing their fin­gers crossed for Scott Got­tlieb

Last week Pres­i­dent Trump said he was just days away from an­nounc­ing an ab­solute­ly “fan­tas­tic” new FDA com­mis­sion­er. One who would cut up to 80% of the reg­u­la­tions around drug de­vel­op­ment, blaz­ing a short­er path to an ap­proval. One who would get ex­per­i­men­tal meds to dy­ing pa­tients, over­haul­ing time­lines and slash­ing de­vel­op­ment bud­gets.

By and large, the mes­sage has spurred more than a lit­tle trep­i­da­tion in the in­dus­try that the pres­i­dent, who has earned a rep­u­ta­tion for shoot­ing first and ask­ing ques­tions lat­er, was go­ing to rad­i­cal­ly change the ap­proval process at the FDA. And that might in­di­cate that lib­er­tar­i­an “seast­ead­er” Jim O’Neill — who has fa­mous­ly said that drugs should be ap­proved on safe­ty alone — has the in­side track with the new pres­i­dent.

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