Commissioner of Food and Drugs

United States Commissioner of Food and Drugs
Incumbent Sara Brenner Acting   since January 24, 2025
Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration
Reports to	Secretary of Health and Human Services
Term length	No fixed term

The United States commissioner of food and drugs is the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The commissioner is appointed by the president of the United States and must be confirmed by the Senate. The commissioner reports to the secretary of health and human services.

Due to frequent controversies involving the FDA, appointments are not always prompt and the agency is often headed by an acting commissioner. For example, Andrew von Eschenbach's appointment was held up by senators who objected to the FDA's refusal to allow emergency contraception to be sold over the counter.

The commissioner has frequently been a physician, but this is not a requirement for the post. Commissioners rarely come from a food-related background. ^[1]

List of commissioners

Unnumbered, colored rows indicate acting commissioners.

No.	Name (birth–death)	Portrait	Term of office		Appointed by (term)
			Start of term	End of term
1	Harvey Washington Wiley		January 1, 1907	March 15, 1912	Theodore Roosevelt
2	Carl L. Alsberg		December 16, 1912	July 15, 1921	William Howard Taft
3	Walter G. Campbell		July 16, 1921	June 30, 1924	Warren G. Harding
4	Charles Albert Browne Jr.		July 1, 1924	June 30, 1927	Calvin Coolidge
3 [2]	Walter G. Campbell		July 1, 1927	April 30, 1944	Calvin Coolidge
5	Paul B. Dunbar		May 6, 1944	May 31, 1951	Franklin D. Roosevelt
6	Charles W. Crawford		June 1, 1951	July 31, 1954	Harry S. Truman
7	George P. Larrick		August 12, 1954	December 27, 1965	Dwight D. Eisenhower
8	James L. Goddard		January 17, 1966	July 1, 1968	Lyndon B. Johnson
9	Herbert L. Ley Jr.		July 1, 1968	December 12, 1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
10	Charles C. Edwards		December 13, 1969	March 15, 1973	Richard Nixon
11	Alexander M. Schmidt		July 20, 1973	November 30, 1976	Richard Nixon
12	Donald Kennedy		April 4, 1977	June 30, 1979	Jimmy Carter
13	Jere E. Goyan		October 21, 1979	January 20, 1981	Jimmy Carter
14	Arthur H. Hayes Jr.		April 13, 1981	September 11, 1983	Ronald Reagan
15	Frank E. Young		July 15, 1984	December 17, 1989	Ronald Reagan
16	David A. Kessler		November 8, 1990	February 28, 1997	George H. W. Bush Bill Clinton
17	Jane E. Henney		January 17, 1999	January 19, 2001	Bill Clinton
18	Mark McClellan		November 14, 2002	March 26, 2004	George W. Bush
19	Lester Crawford		July 18, 2005	September 23, 2005	George W. Bush
20	Andrew von Eschenbach		December 13, 2006	January 20, 2009	George W. Bush
21	Margaret Hamburg		May 22, 2009	April 1, 2015	Barack Obama
–	Stephen Ostroff [3]		April 1, 2015	February 22, 2016	Barack Obama
22	Robert Califf		February 22, 2016	January 20, 2017	Barack Obama
–	Stephen Ostroff [3]		January 20, 2017	May 11, 2017	Donald Trump
23	Scott Gottlieb		May 11, 2017	April 5, 2019	Donald Trump
–	Norman Sharpless		April 5, 2019	November 1, 2019	Donald Trump
–	Admiral Brett Giroir		November 6, 2019 [4] [5]	December 17, 2019	Donald Trump
24	Stephen Hahn		December 17, 2019	January 20, 2021 [6]	Donald Trump
–	Janet Woodcock		January 20, 2021 [7]	February 17, 2022	Joe Biden
25 [8]	Robert Califf		February 17, 2022 [9]	January 20, 2025 [10]	Joe Biden
–	Sara Brenner		January 24, 2025 [11]	Incumbent	Donald Trump

See also

• Regulation of therapeutic goods

References

1. "How the FDA's food division fails to regulate health and safety hazards". politico.com. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
2. Campbell had previously served as Commissioner
3. "Meet Stephen Ostroff, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine". U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 9 February 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
4. ADM Brett P. Giroir
5. McGinley, Laurie (2019-11-01). "Trump announces plan to nominate Texas cancer doctor to run FDA". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2019-11-02.
6. Commissioner, Office of the (2021-01-20). "Stephen Hahn | FDA". U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
7. Kunzmann, Kevin (January 20, 2021). "Janet Woodcock, MD, Appointed as Acting FDA Commissioner". HCPLive. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
8. Califf had previously served as Commissioner
9. "Robert M. Califf M.D., MACC". U.S. Food and Drug Administration. February 17, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
10. Eglovitch, Joanne S. (November 12, 2024). "Regulatory Focus — Califf 'disappointed' about election, warns of changes at FDA". Friends of Cancer Research .
11. "Dr. Sara Brenner Appointed FDA Acting Commissioner as Trump Nominee Awaits Senate Confirmation". Food Safety Magazine. January 27, 2025.