Senator Joe Manchin Urges President Biden Not To Nominate Janet Woodcock As FDA Commissioner
While Senator Joe Manchin has been vocal on his opposition to Janet Woodcock as Biden’s choice for FDA commissioner, he spelled out detailed concerns in a letter to President Biden.
“Dr. Woodcock is not the right person to lead the FDA,” Manchin writes, while noting the agency has been without permanent leadership for about five months.
The senator raises the example of the recent accelerated approval for Biogen Inc’s (NASDAQ: BIIB) Alzheimer’s drug, which Woodcock has since said she was not a part of, and the agency has yet to give reasons on why it went against its advisory committee’s recommendations to reject the drug.
He also noted that three of those adcomm members have since resigned.
The nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen has called for Woodcock to resign over the approval in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
In 2020, over 90,000 Americans died from drug-related overdoses, which is the highest year of overdose deaths ever recorded.
Manchin clarifies that the FDA has played a critical role in this overdose epidemic, but not in a good way. “By overseeing continuous approvals of more potent and more addictive opioids since the initial approval of OxyContin in 1995 – and Dr. Woodcock has been there for all of it.
Dr. Woodcock has repeatedly ignored public health concerns and shown a dereliction of duty by not working to end this epidemic,” Manchin writes.
When exactly Biden’s nomination may occur remains unknown. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told Bloomberg Law that Biden would nominate once the busy president finds time.
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