Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Janet Woodcock To Retire As No. 2 At FDA In Early 2024
Stat: FDA's Woodcock To Retire Early Next Year
Principal Deputy FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock will retire early next year from the Food and Drug Administration after helping steer the agency through an historic period of medical advances during nearly four decades in key leadership positions, she confirmed to STAT Thursday. Woodcock, a doctor with a chemistry degree, joined FDA in 1986 at its biologics center, where she oversaw the approval of the first biotechnology-based treatments for multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis. In 1994, she was named director of the drug center, where she played a key role in guiding some of the most impactful changes to the regulation of medicine, according to Trump administration FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. (Wilkerson and Silverman, 11/16)
Pink Sheet: With Woodcock’s Retirement, US FDA Loses A Renaissance Woman
The FDA will go on without Janet Woodcock, but it will likely take multiple people to fill in the gaps given her breadth of institutional knowledge, interests and skill sets, former close colleagues told the Pink Sheet. (Karlin-Smith, 11/16)
Last week, Woodcock criticized the drug industry's post-covid malaise —
Stat: FDA’s Woodcock, Other Experts Highlight Persistent Issues Plaguing Pharma, Biotech In The Wake Of Covid-19
Officials, including the Food and Drug Administration’s second-in-command Janet Woodcock, acknowledged the drug industry’s persistent lack of interest in collaborating on clinical trials, the ways hypercompetition pervades academic research and slows progress, and biotech investors taking the wrong lessons from pandemic. (Florko, 11/7)
