
If President Trump has his way, Dr. Scott Gottlieb will be the next FDA commissioner. Here’s what we know about his views — and what they might mean for the agency’s future.
He wants to change how the FDA reviews drugs
Gottlieb hasn’t advocated radical, baby-with-bathwater reforms, but he has proposed a tweak that would shake things up.
As it stands, FDA drug reviewers are tasked with both vetting clinical data and making final decisions on applications. Because of that, Gottlieb wrote in 2012 in National Affairs, “reviewers feel an enormous weight of responsibility,” subject to “simultaneous and countervailing pressures to both speed up approval and prevent misuse of new drugs.”