Janet Woodcock to lead FDA on interim basis

Janet Woodcock, MD, the longtime director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, is set to serve as interim FDA commissioner after current Commissioner Stephen Hahn, MD, departs Wednesday. The incoming Biden administration has not yet nominated an FDA commissioner to permanently replace him. Woodcock, who joined FDA in 1986, has been involved with Operation Warp Speed, the multi-agency task force aimed at accelerating the development of COVID-19-related drugs and other medical products. In an interview, Hahn noted the agency is actively seeking to make more COVID-19 vaccine available soon by connecting companies with manufacturing capacity with vaccine companies that have reached the limits on how much they can produce. “We can’t dictate” the process of connecting the firms, “but we can play matchmaker. I’m expecting increased capacity in the next couple of months,” he said.