Trump picks White House aide Heidi Overton to run FDA

Published Aug 19, 03:03 AM UTC

U.S. President Donald Trump has selected White House policy aide Dr. Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to a source familiar with the matter. If confirmed by the Senate, Overton, a physician trained at Johns Hopkins and a former America First Policy Institute fellow, will take over an agency that has lost over 3,000 staff in the past year and faces pressure to rebuild trust amid concerns of politicization. She replaces Marty Makary, who resigned in May after 13 months following clashes with White House advisers and controversies over flavored vapes, abortion pill reviews, and disputes with drugmakers. Overton recently appeared at a White House event where Trump announced an executive order to reduce the childhood vaccine schedule and split the MMR vaccine into separate shots. Acting chief Kyle Diamantas has run the agency since Makary's exit, reversing several regulatory decisions on rare-disease therapies and launching initiatives to speed up drug research.