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President Trump has named his next pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration. She's a physician and domestic policy aide at the White House. NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin has more on the nominee.
SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: The president posted on Truth Social that he is nominating Dr. Heidi Overton to be the next FDA commissioner. Overton would fill a vacancy left by Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned in May after 13 months. Overton trained as a surgeon. Her current role is deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein was the principal deputy commissioner at the FDA during the Obama administration, and he says that moving from the White House to the FDA could be eye-opening.
JOSHUA SHARFSTEIN: In any administration, there are White House advisers who are walking around saying, why can't FDA just do this? What FDA should really do is that. And then you get to FDA, and you realize there's actually another side to the story.
LUPKIN: He says that side includes hearing from career scientists with deep expertise in analyzing the safety of medications. In Sharfstein's opinion, leading the FDA might be the hardest job in government. It has a staff of around 18,000 people. And it's responsible for regulating food, drugs, medical devices and tobacco, even cosmetics and supplements. Sharfstein says a good FDA commissioner's most important organs are their brain and their spine. In other words, you have to be smart, but also tough.
SHARFSTEIN: Because there's all kinds of pressures - they're political pressures. They're business pressures. They're advocacy pressures - coming all the time.
LUPKIN: When Overton worked at the conservative America First Policy Institute, she wrote papers opposing gender-affirming care for minors. She also has questioned the safety of medication abortion and suggested the FDA was wrong to allow it to be prescribed via telehealth. On August 10, President Trump issued a controversial executive order pushing to change the childhood vaccine schedule. At the press conference, Overton called it a historic action.
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HEIDI OVERTON: We do still recommend the measles vaccine for all children. But we want parents to be informed about the timing and to have the option to separate them out.
LUPKIN: Sharfstein and other public health experts have pointed out there's no science to support giving the measles vaccine in a separate shot from the mumps and rubella vaccines. Unbundling those vaccines could raise prices and increase the chance that children miss doses. Overton still needs Senate confirmation to become FDA commissioner. Patty Murray, Democratic senator from Washington, has already said she will vote no.
Sydney Lupkin, NPR News.
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