FDA Names New Top Drug Regulator

Dr. Richard Pazdur is the new director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary in Washington on July 29, 2025. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Nov. 11 that Dr. Richard Pazdur, who had been in charge of regulating cancer drugs, will be the new director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).

Pazdur has worked at the FDA for 26 years and is the founding director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence.

His other work at the agency included launching a new way to review cancer products that focused on speeding up the development of novel therapies.

“Dr. Pazdur is a true regulatory innovator who will help guide our broader agenda to modernize the agency and streamline the approval process,” Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner, said in a statement. “He has a track record of success and is an impressive forward-thinking scientist.”

Pazdur will lead CDER, which handles applications from companies for drugs.

“I’m honored to lead CDER at a time when the FDA is achieving long-sought regulatory reforms,” Pazdur said in a statement. “I look forward to working closely with Dr. Makary and the medical experts he’s assembled to help our country reach its peak in drug development.”

CDER is one of the FDA’s largest divisions. It had 4,951 employees by the end of fiscal year 2025, which ran through Sept. 30. That was down from 6,044 at the beginning of the year.

Officials commenced terminations at the FDA and other health agencies on orders from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said he was restructuring the agencies to improve work processes and efficiency.

Friends of Cancer Research, a group that supports research into cancer therapies, supported Pazdur’s promotion.

“At a time when the agency faces both extraordinary opportunity and complexity, Rick’s steady leadership and commitment to scientific integrity make him exactly the right person to lead CDER,” Ellen Sigal, chair and founder at Friends of Cancer Research, said.

Dr. George Tidmarsh had been CDER’s director until his resignation on Nov. 2.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA’s parent agency, told The Epoch Times that Tidmarsh had been placed on leave prior to his resignation after the department learned of “serious concerns about his personal conduct.”

Tidmarsh and a lawyer representing him didn’t return requests for comment by the time of publication.

Tidmarsh, also a professor at Stanford University, is being sued by Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, which accused Tidmarsh of targeting certain companies in his role as director of CDER.

In one instance, Tidmarsh wrote on LinkedIn that Aurinia’s drug Lupkynis, also known as voclosporin, has “significant toxicity” and that it has not been shown to provide any clinical benefits for patients. The drug was approved by the FDA in 2021.