It seems that president elect Donald Trump wants an investor as the next FDA commissioner, as Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a partner at one of the world’s largest venture capital funds, is also now rumored by Reuters to be on his short-list for the top job.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a partner at one of the world’s largest venture capital funds and a former deputy commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is being considered by President-elect Donald Trump to run the agency, according to sources close to the transition team.
Gottlieb, 44, a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, is well known in health policy circles and is a frequent commentator on television and in print.
Gottlieb is being considered alongside Jim O’Neill, a self-declared libertarian and colleague of Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Mithril Capital Management who was an early Trump supporter and is now advising his transition team.
Bloomberg News first reported that Trump was looking at O’Neill, the managing director at Peter Thiel’s tech investment firm Mithril.
Michael Gaba, federal policy leader of law firm Holland & Knight’s national Healthcare & Life Sciences Team, said Gottlieb would be more palatable to more people than O’Neill, who believes drugs should be allowed on the market before their efficacy has been established, as long as they are safe.
