Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the ouster of a top HHS vaccine expert would likely set back efforts to quickly roll out a vaccine for the coronavirus.
Asked in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" whether forcing out Rick Bright as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) would have an impact, Gottlieb responded, "It's hard to say it doesn't."
"I think changing leadership in that position right now certainly is going to set us back," Gottlieb said.
"It's hard to argue that that's not going to have some impact on the continuity and also make businesses, companies that need to collaborate with BARDA, a little bit more reluctant now to embrace BARDA now that there's a cloud hanging over it and some uncertainty about the leadership," he said.
Gottlieb, who led FDA for two years during the Trump administration, called Bright "very effective" in the job and said they worked together on an Ebola vaccine and on smallpox treatments.
"He was a vaccine expert, so I was sorry to see him go," Gottlieb said.
Bright was transferred last week to a new role at the National Institutes of Health. He has argued he was pushed out of his role over his resistance to investing in the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which had been touted by President Donald Trump as a treatment for coronavirus without scientific evidence. Bright's lawyers said he plans to file a whistleblower complaint with the HHS inspector general.
"I don't think doctors should be using it outside of protocols at this point, given the fact that we've had now accruing evidence demonstrating really no benefit and some indication that it could be causing harm," Gottlieb said of hydroxychloroquine. "I think it's still reasonable to conduct clinical studies with it to see if it could be effective as a treatment. But we've done a lot of clinical studies to date and ... we haven't turned over a card that's really shown that the drug's effective."
Gottlieb was also asked whether Georgia and other states that are moving to lift lockdowns and other restrictions are risking the virus flaring up.
The former FDA commissioner said Georgia is "not out of the woods" as the state is still accruing new cases.
"Georgia’s certainly jumping the gun I think here ... getting started too early, relative to where they are in their epidemic," Gottlieb said.
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April 27, 2020 at 01:12AM
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Ousting vaccine chief ‘is going to set us back,’ former FDA head says - POLITICO
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