--- title: Scott Gottlieb Confirmed as FDA Commissioner description: Gottlieb, a physician and former deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush administration, is seen as competent and knowledgeable. canonical: https://time.com/4773188/fda-scott-gottlieb-senate-commissioner/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-09T22:20:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:50:03.983Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senate Confirms Scott Gottlieb as New FDA Commissioner og:description: He is a former deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush administration og:url: https://time.com/4773188/fda-scott-gottlieb-senate-commissioner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14e7b88e4f14a266/6988ccac0a4a22014b9ce1a7/gettyimages-664917732-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5438 og:image:height: 3059 og:image:alt: Nomination Hearing Held For Scott Gottlieb To Head The FDA Department og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senate Confirms Scott Gottlieb as New FDA Commissioner twitter:description: He is a former deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush administration twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14e7b88e4f14a266/6988ccac0a4a22014b9ce1a7/gettyimages-664917732-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senate Confirms Scott Gottlieb as New FDA Commissioner > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters May 9, 2017 10:20 PM UTC  FDA Commissioner-designate Scott Gottlieb testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on April 5, 2017 at on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. FDA Commissioner-designate Scott Gottlieb testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on April 5, 2017 at on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Zach Gibson—Getty Images by [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters May 9, 2017 10:20 PM UTC The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a conservative health policy expert and venture capitalist, as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Gottlieb, a physician and former deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush administration, is seen as competent and knowledgeable. But critics worry about his ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Gottlieb is a longtime healthcare investor and consultant who has sat on multiple company boards. He has agreed to divest his holdings in some two dozen healthcare stocks. Gottlieb is expected to move quickly to implement FDA mandates in the recently passed 21st Century Cures Act, which is, among other things, designed to speed the drug approval process by relaxing certain clinical trial requirements. The Act requires the FDA to consider the use of “real world evidence” to support new drug applications, including patient reports, anecdotal data and observational studies. Gottlieb is also expected to quickly act to streamline the process for approving generic versions of complex, difficult-to-copy therapeutics. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4773188/fda-scott-gottlieb-senate-commissioner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4773188/fda-scott-gottlieb-senate-commissioner/"},"headline":"Senate Confirms Scott Gottlieb as New FDA Commissioner","datePublished":"2017-05-09T22:20:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:50:03.983Z","description":"He is a former deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. 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