Copyright The New York Times
The Food and Drug Administration named its top cancer drug regulator, Dr. Richard Pazdur, on Tuesday to run its top center for regulating and approving new drugs after a tumultuous period. Dr. Pazdur represents a stabilizing choice for the agency, given his 26 years there and his reputation as a highly respected veteran. The choice comes at a time of rapid turnover at the agency and sinking morale after rounds of staff cuts. Dr. Pazdur has presided over an era that has brought a flurry of approvals of new cancer drugs that have helped patients and generated huge windfalls for their makers. The division Dr. Pazdur will now lead, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, or CDER, is in charge of regulating most prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. The division has about 5,000 employees after losing about 1,000 this year amid dismissals, buyouts and stressful working conditions that spurred many to pursue jobs in the pharmaceutical industry. A different division at the agency, which has also been racked by turmoil, regulates vaccines and gene therapies. “I’m honored to lead CDER at a time when the F.D.A. is achieving long-sought regulatory reforms,” Dr. Pazdur said in an agency news release on Tuesday. He said he was looking forward to helping “our country reach its peak in drug development.” In recent weeks, federal officials accepted the resignation of Dr. Pazdur’s predecessor, Dr. George Tidmarsh, a biotech executive who was a faculty member at Stanford. He said in a previous interview that he had been put on leave pending an investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services related to criticism he aired publicly about a particular medication. He also said he had been critical of a new rapid-approval program that he said had opened the door to political interference with drug approval decisions. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
