Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Heidi Overton, a top White House policy aide, as the next Food and Drug Administration commissioner, according to a post on X by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bloomberg News first reported the impending announcement Tuesday evening.
- Overton is a medical doctor who did her general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins University before joining the first Trump administration as a White House fellow. After Trump lost the 2020 election, she joined the newly formed America First Policy Institute as chief policy officer and director of the group’s Center for a Healthy America.
- If confirmed by the Senate, Overton would step into an agency that has been without a permanent leader since Marty Makary resigned in May after a turbulent tenure. Kyle Diamantas, previously the deputy FDA commissioner for food, took over the top job on an interim basis.
Dive Insight:
The FDA has been plagued by mass layoffs, resignations of key officials and unusual turnover at the highest level during the second Trump administration. Under Makary, the agency also came under fire for unpredictable shifts in policy making, controversial regulatory rulings and a general feeling of erratic decision making.
Now, pharmaceutical industry leaders and investors are in search of a steady hand and a measure of predictability at the agency. Diamantas has “served as somewhat of a stabilizing force” in recent months, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams. Overton, however, would come in with question marks.
“Her impact to biopharma and new drug review flexibility is uncertain,” Abrahams wrote in a note to clients, citing Overton’s lack of drug regulatory experience and limited commentary on industry issues. She likely would “depend heavily” on direction from the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he added.
Kennedy has praised Overton for her help in forwarding his Make America Healthy Again agenda, though The Atlantic reported that some of his followers believe she has slowed down his efforts during her work as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. White House officials told the magazine that she works carefully to make sure policies are advanced the right way.
The child of a minister and an OB-GYN at a Christian hospital, Overton had planned to become an oncology surgeon after graduating from the University of New Mexico’s medical school in 2015, according to a story the previous year in the Albuquerque Journal that praised her work as a student regent. Instead, she went from her surgical residency to the White House in 2019.
At the America First Policy Institute, Overton made her opposition to abortion clear, while writing opinion pieces on issues ranging from opioids to hospital price transparency. She also waded into politics, penning an op-ed with former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal titled, “Tim Walz Made Minnesota a `Sanctuary’ for Baby Killers and Child Mutilators.”
Overton is board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine, according to her biography on the America First website. She also received a Ph.D. in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to note Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement of Overton’s nomination.
