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The US Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that Dr. Richard Pazdur has been named head of its largest division, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which oversees the safety and regulation of most prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. The center is also responsible for regulating products like antiperspirants, sunscreens and fluoride toothpaste, as well as making recommendations to update drug labeling. Pazdur came to the FDA in 1999 as the leader of the Division of Oncology Drug Products. In 2017, he became founding director of the Oncology Center of Excellence, a part of the agency created to advance the development and regulation of products for patients with cancer. The previous director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Dr. George Tidmarsh, abruptly resigned last week after the government started to review “serious concerns about his personal conduct,” according to the Associated Press. Tidmarsh, who took on the director’s job in July, left the agency on the same day a drugmaker connected to one of his former business colleagues filed a lawsuit claiming that he made “false and defamatory statements” while at the FDA, the AP reported. The lawsuit, brought by Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, alleged that Tidmarsh used his job at the FDA to pursue a “longstanding personal vendetta” against the chair of its board of directors. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement that Pazdur will be a good fit to head the center, saying he “has a track record of success and is an impressive forward-thinking scientist.” Pazdur has been honored with a number of awards, including in 2015, when Fortune magazine named him one of the 50 World’s Greatest Leaders. In 2017, Bloomberg named him to The Bloomberg 50 power ranking, and in 2020, he won the Simon M. Shubitz Cancer Prize and Lectureship from the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation. He’s the author of more than 800 articles, abstracts and book chapters and two medical oncology textbooks, according to his official FDA biography; before joining the agency, he was a professor of medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “Dr. Pazdur is a true regulatory innovator who will help guide our broader agenda to modernize the agency and streamline the approval process,” Makary said. Pazdur said in the statement that he is honored to become head of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at a time when “the FDA is achieving long-sought regulatory reforms.” Pazdur will stay on as director of the Oncology Center of Excellence until a successor is chosen, the agency said.
