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Former FDA commissioner Kessler to help lead Biden’s COVID-19 response

By Chris Newmarker | January 15, 2021

Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner and incoming chief scientific officer of the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response [Photo by Justin Hoch, CC BY 2.0]

President-elect Joe Biden today announced that Dr. David Kessler, who led FDA through much of the 1990s, will serve as chief science officer of his administration’s COVID-19 response.

Kessler’s achievements at FDA included speeding the approval of drugs to reduce the AIDS death toll. He’ll now be helping to lead efforts to speed authorization and delivery of vaccines to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control — as well as an overall, comprehensive, whole-of-government COVID-19 response.

“We are in a race against time, and we need a comprehensive strategy to quickly contain this virus,” Biden said in announcing the appointment of Kessler and other new members of the COVID-19 response team.

Kessler has already been serving as co-chair of Biden’s COVID-19 task force.

About The Author

Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.