Former FDA heads support Heidi Overton’s candidacy — STAT News

In the United States, former heads of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Scott Gottlieb and Mark B. McClellan, supported Heidi Overton’s candidacy for the position of agency head. In their view, she has the experience needed to work during a period of significant opportunities and challenges for the regulator.

Support from former heads

In an op-ed for STAT News, the authors said that Overton could help bridge the gap between the rapid development of medical innovations and the burden on institutions that must enable this progress. They also noted that she will be able to present her vision during confirmation hearings in the Senate health committee, scheduled for Thursday.

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Biomedical innovation

Gottlieb and McClellan named the development of biomedical innovations capable of significantly changing patients’ lives as one of the key issues. They noted that other countries are also rapidly developing their own biomedical sectors.

According to the authors, China, through consistent support for regulatory expertise and clinical development capacity, is increasingly creating innovations that previously became available primarily to patients in the United States. Scott Gottlieb led the FDA from 2017 to 2019, while Mark B. McClellan led it from 2002 to 2004. Gottlieb is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a partner at New Enterprise Associates, while McClellan is the founding director of the Robert J. Margolis Institute for Health Policy at Duke University.