Dr. Heidi Overton Nominated To Lead FDA

President Trump nominated Dr. Heidi Overton to be his new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner.  Dr. Overton is to replace Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned on May 12th.  Kyle Diamantas was appointed the acting Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on that date. Mr Diamantas previously served as Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods and was the first lawyer to lead the FDA.

Soon to be ex-Senator from Louisiana Bill Cassidy, who believes he alone runs federal health policy, has “strong concerns” about Overton.  Expect a confirmation fight accompanied by much bowing and scraping:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6039089-trump-heidi-overton-fda-nominee/

Trump taps White House adviser Heidi Overton to lead FDA
By Nathaniel Weixel - August 19, 2026

President Trump tapped Dr. Heidi Overton to be his new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, he announced Wednesday on Truth Social.

Overton, a physician, is a top White House domestic policy adviser on health issues. If confirmed, she would take over an agency roiled by an exodus of top staff and viewed by many in the healthcare industry as less trustworthy and more politicized than it has been in any previous administration.

Her nomination comes about three months after the resignation of Marty Makary, Trump’s first FDA commissioner.

“Dr. Heidi has been a ROCKSTAR in my Administration,” Trump wrote. “We need her leadership at the FDA now to ensure that the U.S. remains the WORLD LEADER for Scientific Discovery and CURES.”

Overton is a major proponent of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement. Last week, she stood beside Trump when he announced an executive order to reduce and separate the childhood vaccine schedule.

At the time, she urged blue states to follow the administration’s “gold standard” recommendations, which were widely denounced by most pediatricians, major medical groups and public health experts.

“We are going to be working directly with states so that we’re not reliant on the court case to resolve,” Overton said, referring to an ongoing lawsuit over an earlier attempt to pare down the vaccination schedule.

She previously served as vice chair and chief policy officer of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a conservative think tank founded by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

The FDA is facing enormous political pressure from top Trump administration officials, including the president himself.

The FDA has for decades been considered a nonpartisan, often wonky part of the administration. Commissioners have largely been medical or scientific bureaucrats with experience running large organizations.

But with the Trump administration’s embrace of top-down governing, the worry among the public health community is that the next commissioner will be even more susceptible to pressure.

Kennedy is pushing untested peptides with virtually no restrictions. Anti-abortion leaders and lawmakers want the agency to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone, and Trump pressed the agency to approve sales of flavored e-cigarettes for the first time.

Overton is an outspoken opponent of abortion. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Overton celebrated the ruling, saying it “will allow Americans to reevaluate the value of the potential of every baby in the womb and choose life through a democratic process.”

She has also written articles for the AFPI that denounced abortion as “corrosive” to women and called for more controls over the prescribing of abortion pills.

Her nomination comes as the FDA is reviewing the safety of the abortion medication mifepristone.

Republicans and anti-abortion leaders are pressing the FDA to reverse a Biden-era rule that allows mifepristone to be mailed and dispensed through telehealth, not just in person. They also want the FDA to declare mifepristone as not safe and pull it from the market, despite it being used for decades with minimal negative side effects.

Chris Meekins, an analyst with Raymond James who served in the Health and Human Services Department during the first Trump administration, said Overton’s nomination would likely lead to more chaos at the agency at a time when officials seemingly wanted the opposite.

“Industry will view this pick as extremely troublesome and FDA career staff will continue to flee the agency,” Meekins wrote in a research note. “Any progress made since Makary’s departure is likely to be quickly reversed if she is confirmed.”

Overton has “seemingly no real experience running anything of consequence,” Meekins wrote.

Normally that could be mitigated by experienced staff helping to guide her, but any “’strong team’ who might be willing to initially fill roles, will likely quickly regret it,” Meekins added.

Overton will eventually receive a confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Panel chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician, publicly wavered but ultimately was a key “yes” vote on many of the Trump administration’s most controversial nominees, including Kennedy.

Cassidy, who lost his primary election to a Trump-backed opponent, wrote on social media Wednesday that he has “strong concerns” about Overton.

“Her lack of managerial experience does not prepare her well for leading a large organization that is already dealing with staffing and morale issues,” Cassidy said. “Additionally, Dr. Overton’s active role in last week’s nonsensical vaccine executive order calls into question her commitment to standing up for sound science and protecting children’s health. That alone is almost disqualifying.”

Overton has “seemingly no real experience running anything of consequence,” Meekins wrote.

Spoken as a man who would know.  Chris Meekins was a deputy assistant to the HHS Secretary with the public health emergencies remit in the lead up to COVID, a role which he flubbed badly.