Earlier this year, Patrizia Cavazzoni, MD, was named the Director of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (FDA’s CDER). The announcement was made via Dr. Janet Woodcock’s official twitter account, @DrWoodcockFDA. In the tweet, Dr. Woodcock welcomed Dr. Cavazzoni to the role, acknowledging that she had been serving in that role “for the past year and providing exceptional leadership during this critical and unprecedented time.”
Dr. Woodcock issued a second tweet, stating, “Having spent most of my career with CDER, I have a deep appreciation of the role. Dr. Cavazzoni’s credentials are of the highest caliber, and I know she will continue to excel in advancing the FDA’s public health mission for the benefit of all.”
Dr. Cavazzoni worked as a psychiatrist in academic medicine and with Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies in various leadership roles before she started her career with the FDA in 2018 as a deputy director of operations for CDER.
Dr. Cavazzoni kept the Twitter streak going, tweeting out her gratitude for the appointment, saying “I am deeply honored to have been permanently appointed as director of CDER.”
Dr. Cavazzoni also thanked Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra and Dr. Woodcock (Acting FDA Commissioner) for trusting her to lead CDER, and with a nod toward the future, tweeted, “I look forward with gratitude and anticipation to serving the center and the public for many years to come.”
Readers may recall that Dr. Woodcock vacated the CDER director last year to take on a new position as the lead on the therapeutics arm of the COVID-19 Operation Warp Speed (OWS). Then, in January 2021 when President Joe Biden took office, Woodcock took on the role of acting FDA Commissioner. Woodcock has quite a storied history with the Agency, starting in 1986 when she joined the Agency and held various roles until she was appointed CDER director in 1994, where she stayed (with the exception of a short departure to hold central administrative roles for FDA in the mid-2000s) until her 2020 move to OWS.
It is still unknown who will be appointed official FDA Commissioner, though Dr. Woodcock has been in serving as Acting Commissioner for the entirety of President Biden’s Administration.