Scott Gottlieb, MD, President Donald Trump's pick to head the FDA, detailed his healthcare plans and his experience during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing on April 5, 2017, according to NBC News.
Here are four key points on the hearing:
1. Dr. Gottlieb said if confirmed, he would work to maintain the public's trust. He said he fully understands how essential it is for him to be impartial. Dr. Gottlieb is a fellow of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute and is also a health policy analyst.
2. He said he would prioritize the opioid epidemic sweeping the nation, adding "I think this is a public health emergency on the order of Ebola and Zika."
3. With experience in the drug industry, Dr. Gottlieb said he is "uniquely suited to try to solve" the FDA's disputes with commercial entities. He said as FDA commissioner, he would not make decisions for one year about almost 24 companies he had been involved with to avoid conflicts of interest. He also said he would divest himself of medical company stocks and resign from positions at medical companies.
4. Last year, Dr. Gottlieb resigned from Mooresville, N.C.-based Kure, an e-cigarette company. Dr. Gottlieb said during the hearing, "As a cancer survivor, I am not going to countenance a rise in adolescent smoking rates in this country under my watch. I recognize that there is a line here somewhere and I don't know where that line gets drawn."