Obama's FDA head is drug industry insider

All Gov - The new head of the Food and Drug Administration selected by President Barack Obama has very close ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Robert Califf, an FDA deputy commissioner and cardiologist at Duke University, has had considerable dealings, including financial ones, with drug manufacturers, whose products must be approved by the agency he’s been tabbed to lead.

The multi-million dollar research center at Duke that Califf ran before joining the FDA received more than 60% of its funding from Big Pharma. In addition, Califf has collected consulting fees from drug makers such as Eli Lilly, Merck and Novartis, although he has donated those fees to non-profits since the mid-2000s.

Califf also drew scrutiny for the “highly unusual” step of removing his name from a series of scientific papers concerning the FDA’s oversight of clinical trials, according to the Boston Globe. The move “could raise ethical concerns,” the Globe’s Sheila Kaplan wrote, particularly since Califf was the “driving force behind the series.”

Daniel Carpenter, a Harvard political science professor, told the Times: “In a sense, he’s the ultimate industry insider.”