Mr. Beast
Former FDA commissioner talks new drug director, building trust
Robert Califf, FDA commissioner during the Biden and Obama administrations, joined STAT's Matthew Herper for a conversation about trust and medical ethics on Thursday night. Califf weighed in on the recent appointment of longtime cancer therapy chief Richard Pazdur as top drug regulator at the FDA, calling it a sign that FDA leaders are trying to stabilize the agency amid declining morale and staff departures.
"What I really admire about Rick is that he has fidelity between his beliefs and his actions," Califf said at the Greenwall Foundation lecture. "He's an honest person and deeply driven to try to do what's right."
Califf also expressed concern that politics are increasingly influencing science within U.S. health agencies, and noted that the medical establishment has a long way to go in restoring trust with the American people. He said health care professionals might learn a lesson or two from Mr. Beast — the most-followed YouTuber — about how to capture people's attention.
"My grandkids all follow Mr. Beast carefully, and whatever he says, a few million people are likely to try to do it," Califf said. "Now we can say, 'That's ridiculous,' or we can say, 'wait a minute, this is affecting what people do.'"
FIRST OPINION
Precision medicine — but for psychiatry
The pharmaceutical industry's approach to mental health treatments has been conservative, resulting in a market saturated with slight variations on existing antidepressants and antipsychotics with similarly modest returns. But that playbook is being thrown out, writes Khutaija Noor, a corresponding member of the scientific committee at the American Psychiatric Association.
Older drugs cast a wide net over brain chemistry, but the new drugs being developed today are like "precision tools," targeting novel pathways such as muscarinic receptors in conditions like schizophrenia. And updated FDA guidelines have altered the cost, timeline, and strategic planning for drug development. Read more to learn about the changes that signal the end of safe bets in psychiatric medicine and how it could lead to "profound implications for investors, insurers, and the entire health care economy," writes Noor, the clinical trial lead for studies at Amicis Clinical Trials.
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