Rick Pazdur, MD, the newly appointed director for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA, has been described as “greyhound thin” as a result of his dedication to cycling and lifting weights in the gym each day and, for a long time, a vegetarian diet. I first met him when he was the director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products (ODP) within CDER, in 2009.
Approximately one in 30 NIH-funded clinical trials—and more than 74,000 trial participants—were affected by grant funding disruptions caused by the Trump administration, according to an analysis in JAMA Internal Medicine.
An NIH employee who has been publicly critical of the Trump administration’s health policies said she was placed on “nondisciplinary” administrative leave when she returned to work Nov. 13 after the government reopened.
Natalie Phelps, a 43-year-old mother of two, died Nov. 9 from colorectal cancer.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, FDA’s chief medical and scientific officer and director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, jointly published a letter in The New England Journal of Medicine spelling out the rationale for FDA’s new “plausible mechanism pathway,” aimed at getting bespoke therapies to market without the need for a randomized controlled trial.
The Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center received the Comprehensive Cancer Center designation from NCI.
City of Hope is scheduled to open a cancer specialty hospital on its academic cancer campus in Orange County Dec. 1.
Darrow Zeidenstein was named chief development officer at the American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. In this role, Zeidenstein will lead the organization’s development efforts, overseeing all aspects of resource generation, including corporate partnerships, philanthropy, planned giving, Discovery Shops, community-based fundraising, and revenue-generating field operations.
Erik Sulman will serve as the interim executive director of the Duke Cancer Institute, effective Jan. 5, 2026.
Kate KlimczakRichard TurmanRichard Turman announced that he will be stepping down from leadingAct for NIH, an NIH advocacy organization, and its affiliated education arm ACT for NIH Foundation, effective Jan. 1, 2026.
