Politico quotes Sydney Wolfe on Biden’s pick of David Kessler to lead the COVID-19 vaccination drive
By Sarah Owermohle and Joanne Kenen
“Kessler has almost sometimes been at odds with some patient advocacy groups, most notably when he criticized the sweeping, bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act passed with overwhelming congressional support in 2016. The massive law, designed to modernize and speed up the FDA’s regulatory reviews, “would lower standards for the approval of many medical products and potentially place patients at unnecessary risk,” he wrote in an editorial.”
“But his new role in the administration was warmly praised by Public Citizen, often a critic of the FDA. Its founder Sydney Wolfe said the Kessler’s appointment ‘importantly matches his public health skills with the greatest international public health crisis of our lifetime, the coronavirus pandemic.’ He said Kessler is well placed to oversee the ‘entire process of development, manufacturing, and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic tests.'”