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# Changes Needed for Future Infectious Disease Issues: Woodcock
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/changes-needed-for-future-infectious-disease-issues-woodcock/
- Published: 2020-11-13T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T16:36:25.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5148082

CDER director **Janet Woodcock**, who has been temporarily assigned to work with the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, says the nation’s medical infrastructure has learned things during the Covid-19 pandemic that should lead to changes in the way things are organized for future infectious disease problems. Participating in a *New England Journal of Medicine* audio [interview](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2033111?query=featured%5Fhome&ref=fdaweb.com), Woodcock noted that unlike the situation with cancer and HIV, there are no existing networks that can be quickly used to test infectious disease therapies.

As a result, she said, there has been a lack of coordination among investigators in the many trials that are underway and a lack of coordinated enrollment. She said that one of the lessons learned from Covid-19 may be the need to have such networks prepositioned before future outbreaks.

Asked about the difference between her role as CDER director and in Operation Warp Speed, Woodcock said that it helps that she knows what companies need to do from a regulatory standpoint, but at the same time she can concentrate on the big picture and not have to worry about all the details that concern regulatory staff.

“I appreciate the pressure that is on companies to get therapies out to people,” she said.

She said there may be antivirals coming that will prevent Covid-19 from progressing in patients and also said she hopes there will be oral antivirals that can be used in an outpatient setting.

She agreed with the interviewers that it is necessary to keep in mind that no one solution will be universal and that there will be different lessons learned from different problems.