Amid shutdown, Gottlieb stays put

One consequence of the government shutdown: Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, won’t be making the trip to San Francisco. In an interview, Gottlieb said that with the agency short-staffed, he just can’t get to J.P. Morgan this year.

“I’m not coming because it would be very difficult for me to be away from the agency during the shutdown,” Gottlieb said. “It would just be very difficult. We’re operating with limited staff and I’m needed here.”

The shutdown has seemed to weigh heavily on him. On Friday he tweeted that the agency’s budget for reviewing new drugs could run out in a month.

He’ll still be making his planned presentation at Westin St. Francis on Tuesday via the miracle of videoconferencing. His topic? Restructuring the FDA for the future — assuming the shutdown ever ends.

Pour one out for Celgene

Chiron, MedImmune, Genentech, Genzyme, and now Celgene. The big biotechs are disappearing into the maws of Big Pharma and we’re sad to see them go. Assuming the proposed $74 billion purchase by Bristol-Myers Squibb closes later this year, Monday morning will be the last time Celgene kicks off the JPM conference in the Grand Ballroom of the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

But there’s no crying in biotech. Instead, we should all gather at Lefty O’Doul’s for a cop-style biotech wake right out The Wire. We can lay out Celgene CEO Mark Alles on the pool table and remember all the good times with shots of Jamesons and choruses of “Body of an American.”