Richard Pazdur’s retirement raises further questions over state of FDA

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) director of its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) is to retire at the end of the month in the latest departure from the agency.

Richard Pazdur has been with the FDA for 26 years but has been CDER director for less than a month, having taken over in November after the resignation of George Tidmarsh, who himself was in the job for less than four months before leaving the role following a controversial social media post.  

On taking over, Dr Pazdur was described as “a true regulatory innovator who will help guide our broader agenda to modernize the agency and streamline the approval process” by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.