Gottlieb picked an FDA successor. Trump might have other ideas

When Dr. Scott Gottlieb stepped down from the job of FDA commissioner earlier this year, he hand-picked Dr. Ned Sharpless to serve the role in interim. Most people who care about this sort of thing assumed Sharpless would get the permanent nod in time, as that tends to be how it goes.

And yet, as STAT’s Nicholas Florko reports, President Trump met Wednesday with a different doctor, Texas oncologist Stephen Hahn, about the FDA job.

That’s despite the fact that five former FDA commissioners have publicly backed Sharpless to become the permanent chief. And all this intrigue has a deadline: Federal law says Sharpless has to step down by Nov. 1 if he hasn’t been formally nominated to serve as permanent commissioner.

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