Why was a Big Pharma bigwig tapped for top FDA post?
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been throwing a fit over Food and Drug Administration regulators for years.
Setting aside Kennedy’s congenital inability to tell the truth, the underlying sentiment is solid: Who wants drug regulations made by drug industry insiders? So you’d think that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s pick to run the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, George Tidmarsh, would be free of such entanglements. But, oh, you sweet summer child, you would be very wrong.
Far from being a noble warrior against the pharmaceutical industry, Tidmarsh is the exact sort of insider that Kennedy and Makary supposedly decry. He’s a biotech executive who founded multiple pharmaceutical companies and holds top jobs at other biotech corporations—which his appointment announcement even brags about.
That sure doesn’t seem to align with Kennedy’s complaints that the pharmaceutical industry is responsible for foisting unsafe vaccines on children or his removal of the entire vaccine advisory committee for having too many conflicts of interest.
Indeed, Tidmarsh’s appointment is quite the change from the way Makary has approached conflicts of interest with everyone else.
In April, Makary announced that anyone employed at a pharmaceutical company or any other company regulated by the FDA could not serve on the agency’s advisory committees. Industry employees “are welcome to attend FDA advisory committee meetings, along with the rest of the American public,” but if they are members of those committees, it is a “cozy relationship that is concerning to many Americans.”
Sure, but having one of those insiders run the agency’s entire drug program is totally not “cozy” or “concerning.”
What Tidmarsh does bring to the table—besides being entangled with the industry he will now regulate—is his embrace of anti-science misinformation relating to the coronavirus pandemic, on which Tidmarsh aligns perfectly with both Kennedy and President Donald Trump. Tidmarsh has complained that “academic science has become riddled with fraud” and that it was time to “root out the corruption,” and he appeared on panels critical of COVID-19 restrictions.
Tidmarsh has likely been campaigning for this gig for a while now, considering he wrote a hard-right op-ed in April, cheering Kennedy for pushing out Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, when he wouldn’t sign on to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine conspiracies.
It was always depressingly likely that Makary’s pick—who does not need to be confirmed by the Senate—was going to be steeped in this worldview. It was also always depressingly likely that any concerns about conflicts of interest would disappear.
The Trump administration isn’t concerned about such conflicts, despite claiming to be. Rather, it’s quite the opposite, with Trump and others engaging in a comical level of corruption, including Kennedy still being involved in litigation against drug companies despite being responsible for overseeing the regulation of those companies. But, hey, no worries—Kennedy says he will give any proceeds to his sons, so it’s completely fine.
Kennedy’s vision of a healthier America is one no medical professional should agree to assist with bringing to fruition. He has announced changes that limit who can receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and he’s published “reports” filled with errors and misinformation. He’s also overseeing the wholesale destruction of cancer research and a completely preventable measles outbreak.
So let’s all give a warm welcome to Tidmarsh, who definitely will not “Make America Healthy Again” but may be able to return to the private sector with some sweet insider knowledge.
