He may be running to be the next US President on the Democratic Party ticket, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday scolded the incumbent’s handpicked nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration.
During a confirmation hearing, the Independent Senator from Vermont stated that he opposed the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to head the FDA, claiming that the nominee is too cozy with the very same prescription drug companies he’d be entrusted with regulating.
“We have been extraordinarily weak in taking on the pharmaceutical industry that is ripping off the American people,” Sanders told Califf during pointed questioning. “I believe we need a commissioner who is going to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and protect the American consumers and I’m going to have to say to you with regret that you are not that person.”
In a press release following the hearing, the Senator’s office highlighted Dr. Califf’s connections to Big Pharma.
“Califf has deeper ties to the pharmaceutical industry than any FDA commissioner in recent history,” the statement read. It said he “ran a multimillion-dollar clinical research center at Duke University that received more than 60 percent of its funding from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry.”
Califf’s financial disclosure to the committee revealed that seven drug companies and a medical device manufacturer–firms that included pharmaceutical giants Merck and Eli Lily–paid him for consulting services.
Sanders, who has made impressive strides among the Democratic electorate by extolling the virtues of socialism, took particular exception with Dr. Califf’s opposition to allowing patients to import drugs directly from Canadian distributors at a lower price.
“We have major concerns about reimportations—the system it would take to make sure the drugs are adequately safe from Americans,” Califf claimed, before being interrupted by Sanders.
“It is beyond my comprehensive,” the Senator shot back. “You’re sitting here saying we can bring in vegetable and fish from all over the world but we cannot bring in brand name drugs manufactured by the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world from a country like Canada.”
Sanders last month announced his intention to oppose Califf’s nomination, after President Obama formally announced it in September.
“As you know, you and I chatted a while back and I told you that I would not support you,” Sanders bluntly told the nominee during Tuesday’s hearing.
