{"id":19714,"date":"2016-01-13T01:10:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T09:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/senate-panel-oks-califf-as-fda-commissioner\/"},"modified":"2016-01-13T01:10:05","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T09:10:05","slug":"senate-panel-oks-califf-as-fda-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/senate-panel-oks-califf-as-fda-commissioner\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate panel OKs Califf as FDA commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 President Barack Obama\u2019s choice for commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration won easy approval from a Senate panel Tuesday, but two senators \u2014 a Republican and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders \u2014 threatened to block the nominee.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she will hold up a vote on the Senate floor until she has reassurances from the agency that it will write rules for labeling genetically modified salmon. The Alaska Republican has said the engineered salmon approved by the FDA last year could be harmful to her state\u2019s wild salmon industry.<\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Califf is now the No. 2 official at the agency, which regulates consumer products from medications to seafood to e-cigarettes. He was a prominent cardiologist and medical researcher at Duke University for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Murkowski said she is angry that she didn\u2019t get more of a warning about the agency\u2019s approval of the modified fish, which she has long opposed. The FDA approved the salmon two days after Califf\u2019s November confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are trying to get my support, they sure fumbled that ball,\u201d she said after the Senate panel approved the nomination on a voice vote.<\/p>\n

Sanders, I-Vt., also opposes Califf\u2019s nomination. The presidential contender did not attend the committee meeting, but his office said he would have voted no.<\/p>\n

Sanders has said the country needs an FDA commissioner who will stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and that Califf is \u201cnot that person.\u201d He said he is also considering a hold on the nomination.<\/p>\n

Some Democrats have raised concerns about Califf\u2019s ties to industry. In 2006, Califf founded the Duke University Clinical Research Institute, a contract research group that has conducted studies for virtually all of the world\u2019s largest drugmakers. Government disclosure forms show that Califf received more than $29,000 in consulting fees, travel, meals and other payments from drugmakers in 2014.<\/p>\n

Califf has already recused himself from dealing with certain companies to avoid conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you look at my record you\u2019ll find I\u2019ve never been a proponent of lowering standards,\u201d Califf said during his nomination hearing. He said he declined to do many studies because drug companies wouldn\u2019t meet his criteria for data access.<\/p>\n

Califf\u2019s nomination does have the support of the Republican chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander said Califf has been thoroughly vetted, and he is confident that Califf can lead the agency \u201cfairly and impartially.\u201d<\/p>\n

As head of the FDA, Califf would inherit a raft of projects and potential challenges, including unfinished tobacco regulations and food safety and labeling reforms.<\/p>\n

Former FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg left the job early last year. The FDA\u2019s chief scientist, Dr. Stephen Ostroff, is serving as acting head of the agency.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/mcjalonick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Barack Obama\u2019s choice for commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration won easy approval from a Senate panel Tuesday, but two senators \u2014 a Republican and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders \u2014 threatened to block the nominee. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she will hold up a vote on the Senate floor until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":19715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19714"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}