5 snack bars from the hearing for confirmation for Trump’s FDA candidate: shots

Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon of John’s Hopkins, who is ready to become the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told the senators on Thursday that he would remain with the science in confirmed science.

In his testimony in front of the Senate Committee, Education, Labor and Pension Committee of the Senate said Makary said that he wanted to help restore America’s confidence in the FDA and the products he regulated.

“If we have the remedy for pancreatic cancer, only 40% of the public will come in and take it because the rest will not trust us, these medication is only 40% effective,” he said. “I think we are fighting bad ideas with more ideas. I don’t believe … in the censorship of scientific opinions. I think we need a civil discourse.”

When he was pushed on several controversial topics, such as B. Access to the abortion pill and shots at the FDA, he did not answer directly and instead said that he would “make an assessment” after becoming FDA commissioner.

Here are five things that have appeared during the hearing for confirmation.

About access to the abortion pill

Several senators asked Makary whether he would maintain the current access to Mifepristone, a pill that would be used for medication and miscarriages for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy w “. Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican from Louisiana, who chairs the Help Committee, asked whether Makary would end access to telemedicine to drugs.

The FDA approved Mifepriston in 2000 with restrictions, but restrictions such as patients required To take it to a doctor’s office, were lifted during the covid and permanently made during the bidges. Medicines abortion made up 63% of all US abbreviations According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization, which supports access to abortion, became after the Guttmacher Institute in 2023.

“I have no preceded plans for the Mifepriston Directive, except solidly, hardly to look at the data and to meet the professional professional scientists who have checked the data at the FDA, and to create an expert coalition to check the ongoing data that must be recorded as part of the REMS program,” said Makary.

Rems stands for “risk assessment and reduction strategy”. The FDA adds Rems programs to some drug permits and can restrict how medication is prescribed and distributed.

Makary said he would look at the data before making decisions. He would not commit himself to limit or maintain access to Mifepristone.

“Well, I wish you would have a little less absorbed today,” said Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire.

On the FDA vaccine advisory committee

Senatorers also asked Makary what he would do about it The latest cancellation of a vaccine consultant The committee meeting that should consider the flu vaccination of the next season.

FDA advisory committees consist of experts outside the agency. They consider publicly and vote on various questions of interest for the agency and vote. Ultimately, the FDA can go hand in hand with these recommendations or ignore them.

This committee called the Vaccines and related consulting committee for biological productsOr VRBPAC should be evaluated which flu strains are included in the vaccine next year.

Makary said he had nothing to do with the rejection of the meeting because he had not yet worked for the FDA.

“You have to check my commitment what the committees do, how they are used,” he told Sen. Cassidy. “As you know, I was critical when this committee was not convened during one of the Covid Booster guidelines of the FDA.”

But he added that there was a “big difference” between the cancellation of one of these meetings for the flu vaccination, in which he says that the members only “stamp stamps”, which international organizations already recommend and have a transparent meeting about whether “every 12-year-old girl in America needs a eighth Covid booster shot”.

He also answered questions about conflicts of interest for the members of the committees.

“We have to check ethics policy because people see things that seem to be a cozy relationship between industry and the supervisory authorities that the products should regulate,” he said. “Well, I want American companies to thrive. I want life sciences to thrive. But we have to call balls and strikes and then keep this independent scientific review process free of conflicts.”

In order to have the experience that is suitable for these committees, members often have stories with companies that do the kind of work they evaluate.

Senator Susan Collins later asked, a Maine Republican, whether Makary would restore the sessions of the vaccine panel. He replied when he confirmed: “The VRBPAC committee would meet.”

He also said Senator John Hickenlooper, a Democrat from Colorado, that “vaccines save lives”. Makary later added: “And I believe that every child who dies of vaccine disease is a tragedy.

With FDA fonts

Makary said Veterinary reviews.

“If you are confirmed as a commissioner, you have my obligation that I will conduct an assessment of the staff and the agency staff,” he said. “I have not been involved in the decisions in relation to one of the changes in personnel recently. However, if you have confirmed, you have my obligation that I will make an assessment.”

Collins urged him to see if he would be the one who conducts the assessment. He replied that he would be.

About drug prices

During the hearing, a few times with high prescription medication came, what Makary said he could help to help.

He suggested that their prices would decrease if more medication were sold without a prescription.

“It would force companies to put a prize on the shelf,” he said. “And I believe in price transparency. It will affect the entire market.”

He also said he wanted to work with the congress to contain the misuse of the patent system that made it possible for companies Biosimilar.

On chemicals in food

In his opening speeches, Makary mentioned the effect of food on health: “Findingness in children is not a willpower problem, and the increase in Alzheimer’s early slump is not a genetic cause. We should be and we will deal with food if they affect our health.”

Later in the hearing, Makary said that if he was confirmed, he would prove the FDA to check chemicals in food that cause inflammation, even though they are currently recognized as secure.

“Half of the children of our nation is sick and nobody really did something meaningful on this front until we got new dynamics and enthusiasm from Secretary Kennedy and President Trump to finally address the causes of these diseases,” he said.