Dr. Marty Makary testifies before the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on his appointment to become a Food and Drug Administration Commissioner.
SAUL LOEB / AFP / GETTY images
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SAUL LOEB / AFP / GETTY images
Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon Johns Hopkins who is ready to become the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told Senators on Thursday that he would stick to science, if he was confirmed.
In his testimony to the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Makary said he wanted to help restore America’s confidence in the FDA and the products it regulates.
“If we have the remedy against pancreatic cancer, but 40% of the public will come and take it because others do not trust us, then this medication is only 40% effective,” he said. “So I think we are fighting bad ideas with more ideas. I do not … believe in the censorship of scientific opinions. I think we need a civilian discourse.”
When he supported several controversial subjects, such as access to the abortion pill and the FDA layoffs, he did not respond directly and said that he would “make an assessment” after having become the commissioner of the FDA.
Here are five things that appeared during the confirmation hearing.
On access to the abortion pill
Several senators have asked Makary if he would maintain current access to mifepristone, a pill used in medication abortions and miscarriage of rating up to 10 weeks of gestation. Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana republican who chairs the aid committee, asked if Makary would end the access to telemedicine to the drug.
The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 with limits, but restrictions as requiring patients To take it in the office of a doctor, was lifted during the Coide and made permanent during the Biden administration. Abortion of drugs explained 63% of all American abortions In 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization which supports access to abortion.
“I have no preconceived plan on the Mifepristone policy, except to examine solid data and to meet career professional scientists who examined FDA data, and to build an expert coalition to review the current data that must be collected as part of the REMS program,” said Makary.
REMS means “risk assessment and mitigation strategy”. The FDA adds REMS programs to certain drug approvals, and they can limit how drugs are prescribed and distributed.
Makary said he would examine data before making decisions. He would not engage in both cases to limit or maintain access to mifepristone.
“Well, I want you to hide a little less today,” said Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire.
Within the FDA Advisory Committee
The senators also asked Makary what he would do on the Recent cancellation of a vaccination notice Committee meeting that was to consider the flu vaccine for next season.
The FDA consultative committees are made up of experts outside the agency. They have publicly deliberated and vote on various questions of interest for the agency. In the end, the FDA can accompany these recommendations or ignore them.
This committee, called the Vaccines and consultative committee for related organic productsOr VRBPAC, was ready to assess the influenza strains to include in the flu vaccine next year.
Makary said he had nothing to do with the cancellation of the meeting because he had not yet worked at the FDA.
“You have my commitment to review what the committees do, how they are used,” he told Senator Cassidy. “As you know, I was critical when this committee was not summoned at all during one of Booster’s guidance decisions coche by the FDA.”
But, he added, there is a “huge difference” between the cancellation of one of these meetings for the flu vaccine, in which he says that the members “rubber stamp” which international organizations already recommend and to have a transparent meeting to know if “demand each 12 year old girl in America to take an eighth boost cocovated”.
He also answered questions about conflicts of interest for members of the committees.
“We have to review the ethics policy because people see things that seem to be a comfortable relationship between industry and regulators who are supposed to regulate products,” he said. “Now, I want American companies to thrive. I want life companies to thrive. But we have to call bullets and strikes, then keep this independent scientific examination process without conflict.”
To have the experience necessary to sit on these committees, members often have history working with companies doing the type of work they help to assess.
Later, Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, asked if Makary would restore meetings of the vaccine panel. He replied that if he was confirmed: “The VRBPAC committee will meet.”
He also told Senator John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, that “vaccines save lives”. Makary added later: “And I believe that any child who dies of a preventible vaccine disease is a tragedy”, in response to a question on the recent measles epidemic and the position of the secretary of HHS Kennedy on vaccines.
On FDA shots
Makary declared that he would examine recent layoffs at the FDA, which included people working on factory inspections, medical devices assessments and medical devices and Veterinary drug journals.
“If he is confirmed as a commissioner, you have the commitment that I will make an assessment of agency staff and staff,” he said. “I have not been involved in any of the decisions concerning any of the staff changes recently, but if it is confirmed, you have my commitment that I will make an assessment.”
Collins pressed it if he would be the evaluation. He replied that it would be.
On drug prices
The high prices of prescription drugs occurred several times during the hearing, which Makary said he thought he can help resolve.
He suggested that if more drugs were sold without a prescription, their prices would drop.
“This would force companies to put a price on the shelf,” he said. “And I believe in the transparency of prices. This will have an effect on the entire market.”
He also said that he wanted to work with Congress to brake the mistreatment of the patent system, which allowed companies to make brand drugs to push the competition from generics and biosimular.
On chemicals in food
In his opening remarks, Makary evoked the effect of food on health: “Infantile obesity is not a problem of will, and the rise in the rise of Alzheimer’s early early is not a genetic cause. We should be, and we will approach food because that affects our health.”
Later at the hearing, Makary said that if he was confirmed, he would ask the FDA to examine chemicals in foods that cause inflammation, even if they are currently recognized as safe.
“Half of the children in our country are sick and no one really did something significant on this front until we got a new momentum and the enthusiasm of secretary Kennedy and President Trump to finally face the deep causes of these diseases,” he said.