FDA nominee preps for hearing next week

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Heidi Overton is expected to sit for her FDA commissioner confirmation hearing next Thursday, but it is still unclear whether Senate HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy is ready to support her.
Shortly after President Donald Trump nominated her, the Louisiana Republican slammed her part in the rollout of Trump’s vaccine executive order as “almost disqualifying.”
But Overton, who works on the White House Domestic Policy Council, has been “doing the rounds” meeting with lawmakers — including a breakfast with Cassidy on Sept. 3 — and speaking with former FDA leaders in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the outreach, who argue it signals she’ll be more collaborative than former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary if confirmed.
Other Trump health picks — including surgeon general nominee Nicole Saphier and deputy health secretary nominee Chris Klomp — are for now on a glidepath for confirmation, even if they don’t win Democrat support.
During a Senate health committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, suggested she is satisfied with Saphier’s qualifications for the surgeon general role.
Saphier, a former Fox News contributor, also told Cassidy that “the most tried and true way to prevent hepatitis B infection and effectively lower hepatitis B associated illness is universal birth dosing,” playing to the outgoing senator’s priorities as a former liver doctor.

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