On March 25, the Senate voted 53-47, along party lines, to confirm Jayanta Bhattacharya, M.D., PhD to be Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Following the vote, Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, issued a statement saying “The NIH needs a leader that will restore Americans’ trust in public health institutions and find unbiased solutions to Americans’ most challenging health problems,” and “Dr. Bhattacharya is ready to take on this responsibility and implement President Trump’s vision to Make America Healthy Again.”
Category: Health/Medical
NIH & FDA Director Nominees Advance
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, was advanced by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The Committee voted 12-11 along party lines, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats voting against.
Similarly, Trump’s pick to head the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary, was advanced out of the committee by a 14-9 vote, with Democrats Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and John Hickenlooper of Colorado joining all Republicans in voting to advance.
Bhattacharya and Makary will now appear for a confirmation vote before the entire Senate, with the Republican majority all but ensuring that they will be confirmed.
Monica Bertagnolli, M.D. Confirmed as New NIH Director
Monica Bertagnolli, M.D. was confirmed as the new NIH Director last week. Now that she is confirmed, she has taken the helm immediately as the 17th director. She is the first surgeon and the second woman to hold the position and joins the NIH after being the director at the National Cancer Institute.
In his nomination announcement earlier this year, President Biden stated: “Dr. Bertagnolli has spent her career pioneering scientific discovery and pushing the boundaries of what is possible to improve cancer prevention and treatment for patients and ensuring that patients in every community have access to quality care. Dr. Bertagnolli is a world-class physician-scientist whose vision and leadership will ensure NIH continues to be an engine of innovation to improve the health of the American people.”
Read more about about Dr. Bertagnolli and her confirmation here.
Nominee to Head NIH Clears Committee
Earlier this morning, the nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee by a bipartisan vote of 15 to 6. Bertagnolli, the current director of the National Cancer Institute, was nominated by President Biden earlier this year to take over the NIH, which has not had a permanent head since the retirement of Francis Collins.
President Biden Announces Intent to Nominate Dr. Bertagnolli as NIH Director
President Biden announced today his intent to nominate Dr. Monica Bertagnolli as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Bertagnolli is currently the Director of the National Cancer Institute and was previously the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in the field of surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment and Sarcoma Centers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Read more about Dr. Bertagnolli and President Biden’s statement here.