The FDA, urged to avoid controversy, creates a new headache with attack against UniQure – statnews.com

The FDA, urged to avoid controversy, creates a new headache with attack against UniQure – statnews.com

Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54.

There was a telling exchange during a Thursday media call set up by the Food and Drug Administration to enable a “senior FDA official” — he could only be quoted anonymously — to attack UniQure and its experimental treatment for Huntington’s disease.

Robert Langreth, a reporter for Bloomberg, asked the senior official how long he planned to stay at the FDA. 

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The FDA official responded, “You all know that as background, I’m a professor and I’m a practicing [hematology-oncology] doctor. I do miss my clinic and I miss teaching, and I miss being able to run my podcast and speak freely. But I would say that I serve at the pleasure of the [FDA] commissioner and the [health] secretary and the president, and as long as we’re all in alignment — that me serving is in the best interest of the American people — I will continue to serve happily.”

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The FDA, urged to avoid controversy, creates a new headache with attack against UniQure – statnews.com





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