David Gortler, PharmD., FCCP, a nationally recognized expert in drug development and regulatory matters and senior policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, which publishes Health Care News, is now serving as a senior advisor to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn, MD.
Gortler will retain his policy advisory role to The Heartland Institute, which is welcome news, says Jim Lakely, Heartland vice president.
“Over the past decades, the FDA has turned into a sclerotic bureaucracy that is thorough, but so slow to approve life-saving medicines and address important drug safety problems, that ultimately deprives Americans of the latest available biotechnology,” Lakely said. “David Gortler has established himself as a sharp, out-of-the-box thinker known for his communication and teaching skills and ability to address and solve complex problems.”
The media was quick to take notice of the Gortler appointment. Nicholas Florko of Stat News tweeted August 24 of an upcoming article, “A look into the shocking views of FDA’s newest political appointee, who once publicly called for a mass firing at the FDA.”
In a 2016 Stat News op-ed, Gortler wrote the agency “has its share of petty people who have personal agendas against fellow FDA employees and/or pharmaceutical companies.”
–Staff reports