特朗普政府正审查反对肯尼迪疫苗政策的人士担任FDA局长，消息人士透露

Trump admin vetting critic of RFK vaccine policies for FDA chief, sources say

2026-06-04T21:58:12.996Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/04/politics/trump-fda-ned-sharpless-maha-rfk

• The Trump administration is considering Dr. Norman Sharpless, an oncologist who served as a health official in Trump’s first term, to lead the FDA.
• Sharpless has opposed changes to vaccine safety regulations championed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary and a proponent of the Make American Healthy Again movement.
• Sharpless and others being under consideration for FDA head reflect a shift away from the MAHA movement as the White House seeks conventional leaders ahead of midterm elections.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

The Trump administration is vetting a first-term health official to lead the Food and Drug Administration who has criticized vaccine policies championed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Dr. Norman “Ned” Sharpless, who ran the National Cancer Institute during President Donald Trump’s first term, is one of a handful of outside candidates under consideration for the permanent job, four people familiar with the matter said.

Sharpless won broad praise for his work at NCI, which he led for the entirety of the Trump administration and part of the Biden administration before leaving government in 2022.

He also served briefly as Trump’s acting FDA commissioner in 2019 — a seven-month stint that could prove valuable for senior Trump officials trying to stabilize the embattled agency after months of upheaval, the people familiar with the situation said.

That Sharpless is being considered to run the FDA is the latest sign of the administration’s willingness to spurn the “Make America Healthy Again” movement in favor of more conventional leaders it believes can shore up a health department now seen as a political weakness for the GOP.

He has no clear ties to Kennedy or the MAHA movement, which Trump credited with aiding his 2024 presidential win — but that has more recently seen its influence wane as the administration repositions ahead of November’s midterms.

Since leaving government, Sharpless co-founded a venture capital fund that invests in biotechnology companies. He has been a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.While there, he signed onto a letter opposing planned changes to some of the FDA’s recent vaccine policies.

“We are deeply concerned by sweeping new FDA assertions about vaccine safety and proposals that would undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure that vaccines are safe, effective, and available when the public needs them most,” Sharpless and a dozen other former FDA leaders wrote last December, calling them “the latest in a series of troubling changes at the FDA.”

The oncologist is one of several candidates that Trump health officials have discussed, and the people familiar with the matter cautioned that the search process is still ongoing. Senior officials had hoped to submit a recommended nominee to Trump in the first half of this month, though that timeline may slip as they continue to sift through candidates.

Sharpless did not respond to a request for comment.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the administration “is reviewing a large pool of highly qualified candidates interested in serving in key leadership roles across HHS, including the FDA. The focus remains on experienced leaders who can strengthen agency operations, continue advancing significant reforms, and maintain public trust.”

In another indication of MAHA’s loosening grip on personnel decisions, Trump health officials involved in the FDA commissioner search have also eyed longtime pharmaceutical executive Richard Pops, three of the people familiar with the matter said.

Kennedy and the MAHA movement have frequently targeted the industry as a corrupting force within the nation’s health system.

Pops, who is set to step down as CEO of Alkermes, a drug company, later this summer, is a well-regarded figure within the pharmaceutical industry, which clashed frequently with Marty Makary, the recently-ousted FDA commissioner, over the agency’s drug approval process.

Alkermes did not respond to a request for comment.

Several people close to the administration, in meantime, have pressed Trump officials to make acting FDA commissioner Kyle Diamantas the permanent nominee, arguing that this would be the simplest path toward stability at the agency.

Diamantas, the FDA’s top food executive, has impressed officials inside and outside the agency since taking over as acting chief three weeks ago and retains credibility within the MAHA movement for his efforts to advance policies to encourage healthier eating.

But Diamantas has scant experience on drug issues, which could undercut his chances ahead of a midterm where Trump has sought to tout his efforts to lower the cost of medicines, according to some of the people familiar with the search.

The wide-ranging search has taken on a high priority within HHS and parts of the White House, as officials try to plug key vacancies within a department juggling multiple public health threats alongside initiatives viewed as core to Trump’s affordability agenda.

Earlier this year, the White House oversaw a shakeup of Kennedy’s senior leadership team in hopes of improving operations and cutting down on messaging missteps that had frustrated Trump aides and some GOP lawmakers over the last year.

Officials have also encouraged a shift away from Kennedy’s most controversial priorities, downplaying his politically unpopular attempts to overhaul vaccine policies in favor of wider-appeal rhetoric focused on lowering health care costs.

The White House has since chosen more conventional candidates to fill HHS’ top ranks. In April, Trump nominated public health veteran and vaccine supporter Erica Schwartz to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The White House then dropped Casey Means, a close Kennedy ally, as surgeon general nominee after it became clear she couldn’t be confirmed. Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier has been picked instead. Saphier had no prior relationship with Kennedy and a history of criticizing him and some of his policies.

Last month, Makary became the latest top health official to leave the administration, after it became clear he’d lost support within the White House and alienated key factions of the Republican Party and health care industry.

Several Makary allies subsequently stepped down or were fired, creating more high-level vacancies within an agency that had already suffered months of turnover, staffing cuts and infighting over policy decisions.

Senior health officials have since sought to fill those roles quickly, seeking candidates who can command instant credibility with FDA staff and the broader public.

Yet even as they cast a net that extends well beyond the MAHA movement, the people familiar with the search said it could still prove challenging to settle on a pick for FDA commissioner with the attributes needed to win both Kennedy and Trump’s approval — and speed through confirmation in a closely divided Senate where an expanding group of GOP lawmakers have shown a willingness to buck the administration.

Several Republican senators have pressed the FDA to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone by reversing a Biden-era change that allowed prescriptions to be sent through the mail. Makary was noncommittal about if or when the FDA would make those changes, fueling criticism from anti-abortion advocates who eventually celebrated his departure.

It could prove a tricky GOP litmus test for whoever succeeds him as well. Sharpless joined six other FDA commissioners and acting chiefs in 2023 to argue that the agency made sound, scientific decisions when easing access to mifepristone.

Diamantas, meanwhile, scrambled shortly after he was named acting commissioner to quell anti-abortion advocates’ concerns about his stance on mifepristone and prior work defending Planned Parenthood in a property dispute.

In a tacit acknowledgement of that difficult path ahead, HHS has taken steps to strengthen ties with GOP senators who might be key to confirming Trump’s new health nominees — including Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the committee responsible for advancing the department’s picks.

Cassidy has been at odds with Kennedy for months, and lost his primary race after Trump endorsed a rival candidate. Trump publicly celebrated Cassidy’s defeat, writing on social media: “It’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”

But shortly afterward, Kennedy’s chief counselor, Chris Klomp, arranged a private meeting with the Louisiana senator, said two people familiar with the previously unreported episode.

Among the overarching goals, said one of those people: To thaw tensions and try to smooth the path ahead for the department’s forthcoming nominees.