Departing FDA chief to work at conservative think tank

Departing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb will return to a conservative think to focus on drug pricing issues.

Gottlieb, whose last day at the FDA is Thursday, will serve as a resident fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he worked before joining the agency, he told The Washington Post.

{mosads}Gottlieb, who said last month he was leaving the FDA to spend more time with his family in Connecticut, will spend six days a month at AEI. During his two years at the FDA, Gottlieb commuted weekly between Connecticut and Washington.

He announced his resignation on March 5.

At AEI, Gottlieb told the Post, he will focus on “market failures” that keep drug prices high.

“My colleagues and I am thrilled that [Gottlieb] is coming home to AEI,” Michael Strain, an AEI resident scholar, tweeted Thursday. 

“It will be wonderful to have him back at the lunch table. And we will benefit so much from AEI being his intellectual home. I’m excited for the work he will be doing.”