Dr. Scott Gottlieb was sworn in as FDA commissioner on May 11, 2017. Gottlieb is a physician, medical policy expert and public health advocate who previously was the FDA’s deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs and a senior adviser to the FDA commissioner during President George W. Bush’s administration.
Gottlieb’s other government credentials include senior adviser to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the implementation of Medicare drug benefits. Also, Gottlieb was appointed to the Federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee by the Senate in 2013. There, he advised the Department of Health and Human Services on healthcare information technology.
Outside of government work, Gottlieb has a deep background in the medical and business worlds. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, and has a degree in economics from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. Gottlieb has held positions as a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and as a clinical assistant professor and hospital physician at the New York University School of Medicine.
In business, Gottlieb was a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, Chevy Chase, Md.—where he focused on healthcare investments—and was a consultant or board member for several drug and pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, U.K., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Boston.
Perhaps most pertinent to the tobacco industry, Gottlieb was an investor in the Charlotte, N.C.-based electronic cigarette and vaping lounge company Kure Corp. (also serving as director of the company from 2015 to 2016). Before becoming FDA commissioner, Gottlieb promised to sell his interest in the company and recuse himself from e-cig regulations for a year.