The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has made Michael Davis the permanent director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).
Karim Mikhail has been named permanent director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). Both had served as acting directors since May 2026.
The appointments are intended to provide stability after repeated turnover in FDA leadership and come while a new FDA commissioner awaits Senate confirmation.
HHS also appointed Jared Seehafer as the FDA’s first deputy commissioner for artificial intelligence.
The permanence of the appointments could still depend on the incoming FDA commissioner’s decisions.
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