FDA pick received millions from firms

NEW YORK

Scott Gottlieb, U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has received millions of dollars from various pharmaceutical and investment firms, and plans to temporarily recuse himself from making decisions on at least 20 companies where he has had financial interests.

In a 41-page document listing dozens of payments and financial interests, Gottlieb said he’d received money from drugmakers including GlaxoSmithKline Plc, which paid him US$87,153 for consulting work, and Daiichi Sankyo Co., which paid him US$52,207 in director fees, according to financial disclosure forms. His biggest source of income appears to be the banking and brokerage firm T.R. Winston & Co., from which he received more than US$1.8 million in fees related to consulting work.

The payments total about US$3 million, a figure that doesn’t include investments Gottlieb has in various companies and stock options that he’s exercised. Most of the recusals will last for a year after Gottlieb ends relationships with drugmakers and health firms including Glaxo, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., he said in a letter to ethics officials at the health and human services department.

Gottlieb, who served as a deputy commissioner to the FDA under former president George W. Bush, has yet to get a date for Senate confirmation.

Since leaving the FDA, he’s worked as an adviser to investment firms and as a fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank. He has been the drug industry’s preferred choice for the FDA job.