WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed President Barack Obama’s nominee to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday despite frustration over the agency’s response to the abuse of opioid painkillers.
The vote was 89-4 for Dr. Robert Califf, a prominent cardiologist and medical researcher at Duke University for more than 30 years and the FDA’s No. 2 official.
With only a year left in Obama’s presidency, Califf will be tasked with wrapping up many of the administration’s initiatives at the agency, including unfinished tobacco regulations and food safety and labeling reforms. He is expected to follow through on his pledge to re-evaluate how the agency regulates prescription painkillers like OxyContin amid an epidemic of abuse tied to those drugs.
Under pressure from the Senate, Califf said earlier this month the agency would add new warning labels to the most widely prescribed painkillers and increasingly consult with outside advisers on the medications.
“I believe Dr. Califf understands the dire nature of the opioid epidemic and, accordingly, I believe he is today the right person to lead the FDA in a new direction,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said this week.
