STAT+: Watch: At JPM, former drug regulator Richard Pazdur rings the alarm about politics at FDA

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Source: STAT News

Original: https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/13/jpm-2026-richard-pazdur-full-session-video-f...

Published: Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:44:19 +0000

Richard Pazdur, who worked at the FDA for 26 years, abruptly left the agency last month after what he said was a backlog of promises.[1] At a STAT event in San Francisco, he warned that the firewall between political appointees and FDA drug reviewers had been breached.[1] He criticized the lack of transparency in the new voucher program, which allows for expedited review of certain drugs selected by Trump administration officials.[1] Meetings about these drugs are held in a conference room next to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary's office, where there is not enough room even for the entire review team.[1] Most, if not all, of the participants in these meetings report directly to Commissioner Makary, which he finds problematic.[1] Pazdur suggested that such meetings be public or at least accessible to FDA staff.[1] His departure as director of CDER and the Oncology Center of Excellence, which he founded in 2017, contributes to the high turnover of leadership.[2][3]