Commissioner of Food and Drugs

Commissioner of Food and Drugs
Incumbent Scott Gottlieb since May 11, 2017
Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration
Reports to	Secretary of Health and Human Services
Term length	No fixed term

The Commissioner of Food and Drugs is the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The commissioner is appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. The commissioner reports to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Due to frequent controversies involving the FDA, appointments are not always prompt and the agency is often headed by an acting commissioner. For example, Andrew von Eschenbach's appointment was held up by senators who objected to the FDA's refusal to allow emergency contraception to be sold over the counter.

The commissioner has frequently been a physician, but this is not a requirement for the post.

On February 24, 2016, the United States Senate confirmed Robert Califf as Commissioner of the FDA to succeed Acting Commissioner Stephen Ostroff.^[1]

List of Commissioners[edit]

No.	Name	Portrait	Took Office	Left Office	President served under	Notable for
1	Harvey Washington Wiley, M.D.		January 1, 1907	March 15, 1912	Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft	Chemist; advocacy of the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906; subsequent work at Good Housekeeping Institute laboratories
2	Carl L. Alsberg M.D.		December 16, 1912	July 15, 1921	William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding
3	Walter Gilbert Campbell		7/16/1921	6/30/1924	Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge
4	Charles Albert Browne, Jr. Ph.D.		7/1/1924	6/30/1927	Calvin Coolidge
3[2]	Walter Gilbert Campbell		7/1/1927	4/30/1944	Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt
5	Paul B. Dunbar, Ph.D.		5/6/1944	5/31/1951	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman
6	Charles W. Crawford		6/1/1951	7/31/1954	Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower
7	George P. Larrick		8/12/1954	12/27/1965	Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
8	James Lee Goddard, M.D.		1/17/1966	7/1/1968	Lyndon B. Johnson
9	Herbert Leonard Ley, Jr., M.D.		7/1/1968	12/12/1969	Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon
10	Charles C. Edwards, M.D.		12/13/1969	3/15/1973	Richard M. Nixon
11	Alexander Mackay Schmidt, M.D.		7/20/1973	11/30/1976	Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford
12	Donald Kennedy, Ph.D.		4/4/1977	6/30/1979	Jimmy Carter
13	Jere Edwin Goyan, Ph.D.		10/21/1979	1/20/1981	Jimmy Carter
14	Arthur Hull Hayes Jr., M.D.		4/13/1981	9/11/1983	Ronald Reagan
15	Frank Edward Young, M.D., Ph.D.		7/15/1984	12/17/1989	Ronald Reagan
16	David Aaron Kessler, M.D.		11/8/1990	2/28/1997	George H. W. Bush Bill Clinton
17	Jane Ellen Henney, M.D.		1/17/99	1/19/2001	Bill Clinton
18	Mark Barr McClellan, M.D., Ph.D		11/14/2002	3/26/2004	George W. Bush
19	Lester Mills Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D.		7/18/2005	9/23/2005	George W. Bush	Charged with conflict of interest and lying about stock he and his wife owned in companies regulated by FDA.[3]
20	Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.		12/13/2006	1/20/2009	George W. Bush	Member of the board of directors of BioTime (NYSE MKT: BTX), a biotechnology and regenerative medicine company.
21	Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D.		5/22/2009	4/1/2015	Barack Obama
22	Robert Califf, M.D.		2/22/2016	1/20/2017	Barack Obama
23	Scott Gottlieb, M.D.		5/11/2017	Incumbent	Donald Trump

See also[edit]

• Food and Drug Administration
• Regulation of therapeutic goods

References[edit]