President Trump formally announced his intention to nominate Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, a top executive at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, to be the next commissioner of the U.S. FDA.
President Trump is passing over the acting F.D.A. commissioner, Norman Sharpless, who will return to his former role at the National Cancer Institute. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Sharpless was only allowed to serve a total of 210 days as an acting commissioner without a nomination; his tenure ended Friday.
Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will serve as acting FDA commissioner while Hahn's Senate confirmation process occurs.
Hahn, who has been the suspected frontrunner for the FDA position for the past few months, is a well-known radiation oncology expert and the current chief medical executive of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where has been a professor of radiation oncology since January 2015.
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