Despite months of hand-wringing and opposition, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm Dr. Robert Califf as the next Food and Drug Administration commissioner by a bipartisan vote of 89 – 4. This confirmation follows a cloture vote from earlier this week, despite opposition from some a small group of Senate Democrats, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The opposition was because some alleged Califf had huge ties to the pharmaceutical industry. In the end only four Senators voted against his nomination Senators Blumenthal (D-CT), Markey (D-MA), Manchin (D-WV) and Ayotte (R-NH).
Most responded to Dr. Califf’s nomination positively, as he had the support of many physicians, health policy, and cardiology experts. Dr. Califf also enjoyed continued support of many of his previous co-workers at Duke.
Dr. Califf was nominated last year by President Obama and has been serving as Deputy Commissioner for the past year. Dr. Califf previously worked as the Director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and founded the Duke Clinical Research Institute, the largest academic research organization in the world. According to Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the former FDA commissioner, “Dr. Califf is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the top 10 most cited medical authors, with more than 1,200 peer-reviewed publications.”