FDA commissioner Robert Califf’s second term is anticipated to end in 2025, and all eyes are now on who will be the next to take the position after Donald Trump is elected president for the second time.
He was elected to head the agency in February 2022. Califf was briefly the agency’s commissioner under the Obama administration beginning in 2016.
At a conference hosted by the Friends of Cancer Research, Califf acknowledged the uncertainty President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House raises for the agency workforce.
He is “disappointed” about the election’s outcome. “I think we just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
At the Tuesday conference, Califf added, “The gist of this administration, from everything that’s been said, is that they want to change a lot of things, and how it gets changed depends on who gets appointed into key positions and how the various policies play out.”
Asked whether FDA employees are eying the exits, Califf said, “people are waiting to see.”
Asked to respond to Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s statements about clearing FDA groups focused on nutrition and other issues, Califf suggested the agency is limited in addressing issues with the American diet because of Congress.
In an interview Califf said, “In times of change and chaos, there’s also opportunity,” he continued. “I will just comment, there’s a lot of things that I bet almost everyone in leadership positions in the health agencies would have liked to have changed but couldn’t because of the gridlock of various interests that made it difficult to change things.”
Callif said he believes the FDA is at “peak performance right now — and we’ll see what happens as the new team comes in.”
“From things that have been said, the change could happen internally or from external decisions made by the administration,” he said. “I just think we have to wait and see and have some faith that hard-working, high-quality people are still going to be in place and have support from — I hope — the external regulated community, which given the dynamics is likely to be the most important factor.”
While Califf hasn’t officially announced his departure from the FDA, he said today that “this is not the first time I’ve ridden out of town after an election.”
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