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# FDA Turmoil Before Trump: CDER Chief Quits
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-turmoil-before-trump-cder-chief-quits/
- Published: 2025-01-10T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T14:50:43.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5158465

CDER’s senior leadership is in turmoil ahead of president-elect **Donald Trump**’s 1/20 inauguration as director **Patrizia Cavazzoni** unexpectedly announces her early retirement effective two days before the new administration takes hold. “Leaving CDER was an extremely difficult decision, but the time has come for me to be more present for my family, who have taken the backseat over the past few years due to the demands of my role and our critically important public health work,” Cavazzoni said in an email to staff (*see its entirety below*).

The unprecedented departure of a Center director ahead of an administration change is even more uncharacteristic with Cavazzoni’s hasty announcement. In recent times, high-profile directors had chosen to stay on for months after announcing their departure to ensure a smooth transition. Her email mentions no future plans or who will be acting director in her absence. A separate email from FDA commissioner **Robert Califf** announces that CDER principal deputy Center director **Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay** will serve as acting director, pending an ethics clearance. “I have great confidence in Dr. Corrigan-Curay, with whom I have worked with for years and who has shown remarkable abilities in her current deputy role, in critical areas such as shortage management, drug supply chain, generic drugs and other complex policy and regulatory areas,” he says in the email.

Adding vast loss of institutional memory to the current upheaval, CDER senior advisor for clinical science **Bob Temple** retired effective 12/31 after 52 years at the Center ([see story](https://www.fdaweb.com/temple-retires-bumpus-leaves-fda/)). Temple joins CDER deputy director for regulatory programs **Doug Throckmorton**, who is retiring this month ([see earlier story](https://www.fdaweb.com/cder-deputy-throckmorton-retiring-in-january/)) after 27 years at FDA. Agency watchers had speculated that some FDA employees would leave the agency ahead of anticipated disruptions from the incoming administration ([see earlier story](https://www.fdaweb.com/rfk-jr-aims-to-free-fda-from-corporate-capture/)).

Cavazzoni joined FDA in 2018 and before serving as CDER director, she was the Center’s deputy director of operations and acting principal deputy commissioner. In 2021, then acting commissioner **Janet Woodcock** appointed her as CDER director, a post that she served in an acting capacity for a year while Woodcock was on detail at Operation WarpSpeed during the Covid-19 public health emergency.

Cavazzoni has more than 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, with expertise in global clinical development, clinical trials, product safety, and regulatory affairs. Previously at Pfizer, she was head of worldwide safety and led safety reporting and surveillance activities, risk management, and global labeling strategy and operations. Prior to Pfizer, Cavazzoni served as vice president and head of global pharmacovigilance and epidemiology at Sanofi-Aventis. She also held leadership roles at Eli-Lilly, where she directed safety surveillance and pharmacoepidemiology operations.

**Patrizia Cavazzoni email announcement:** 
*Dear CDER Colleagues:*

*I am writing to let you know that after much consideration, I have decided to retire from FDA, and my last day will be January 18.*

*Leaving CDER was an extremely difficult decision, but the time has come for me to be more present for my family, who have taken the backseat over the past few years due to the demands of my role and our critically important public health work.*

*When I joined CDER seven years ago as deputy director for operations, I was new to government, and I had the great fortune of learning from the best. After I was entrusted with leading CDER four and a half years ago, during the early and darkest days of the pandemic, I was in awe of how we all pulled together to battle the virus and save lives. What we did as a team was nothing short of heroic. Even more astounding, while responding to the biggest public health emergency in the past 100 years, we continued to grow as a Center. We made enormous strides in innumerable areas across every single office and program.*

*While I could spend a lot of time enumerating our achievements, I want to highlight our biggest success: our people and our culture. As I leave CDER, I can say with confidence that the Center is at its strongest. We have hired and retained record numbers of the best scientists and professionals. We have built a cohort of world-class managers and executives who are solidly at the helm of our organization and will continue to lead CDER. And most important of all, we created a culture that fosters respect for one another, inclusion, accountability, and diversity of thought and life experience. Our culture is what makes us strong and resilient, and it’s the foundation of what we have accomplished and will accomplish in the future.*

*I would like to thank each of you for everything that you do every single day, over countless hours, days and nights, to serve the American people and to achieve our public health mission. And I would be remiss if I didn’t call out the exceptional group of leaders that comprise the CDER Executive Committee, with whom I have worked hand in hand to make us what I consider the premier drug regulatory organization in the world. I have the utmost trust in this leadership team.*

*I will always view my time at CDER as the most important contribution I will have made toward making the world a better place. And I will cherish my time as CDER’s Center Director. It has been the greatest honor and privilege of my professional life. While I am leaving my position at CDER, my commitment and support for all of you and your mission will continue after my departure, and I will continue to do my utmost to support and advocate for CDER and FDA.*

*Please do not hesitate to reach out via e-mail or come by my office over the next week to catch up or say hello.*

*All the best,*

*Patrizia*