, Columnist
The FDA Needs This Nudge to Speed Along New Drugs
The commissioner is gradually correcting a dangerously overcautious culture.
Scott Gottlieb is smart and effective. That's why he shouldn't be HHS secretary.
Photographer: Zach Gibson/Getty ImagesOn Tuesday Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb seemed to be taking himself out of the running to replace the departed secretary of health and human services, telling Reuters, “I feel like I want to continue to follow through on the policies we’ve put out, and it’s where I think I can be most effective.”
If Gottlieb has indeed demurred, that’s a smart move. High-level officials in the Trump administration have remarkably short life expectancies. (We're veering from fruitfly territory into that of the gastrotrich, an aquatic creature that lives, breeds and dies in the span of just three days.)