US FDA Faces Succession Questions As Hahn’s Departure Nears 1

further, calling for Trump to be removed from office. NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement that the day’s events constituted “sedition,” charging that Trump “incited violence in an attempt to retain power.”

“Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment to preserve democracy,” Timmons said.

Any elected leader defending Trump “is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy,” he said. “Anyone indulging conspiracy theories to raise campaign dollars is complicit.”

Removal seems unlikely with only two weeks until President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. But business thrives on certainty and consistency. Advocating for an outcome that could create fear and uncertainty underscores the escalating concerns in the waning days of the Trump administration.

“This is not the vision of America that manufacturers believe in and work so hard to defend,” Timmons said in the statement. “Across America today, millions of manufacturing workers are helping our nation fight the deadly pandemic that has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives. We are trying to rebuild an economy and save and rebuild lives. But none of that will matter if our leaders refuse to fend off this attack on America and our democracy, because our very system of government, which underpins our very way of life, will crumble.”

Indeed, pharma also likely is anticipating the end of the Trump Administration. In milder statements, industry leaders also called for the country to accept the election results and move on to the Biden Administration. PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl denounced the events at the Capitol as “appalling,” saying in a two-tweet statement that they “violate the better values of our nation.”

“It’s time for a peaceful transition of power our Constitution requires and the mob standing in the way must be condemned,” Ubl tweeted. “The American people have spoken and now more than ever we must stand together.”

BIO President and CEO Michelle McMurry-Heath called the riot “simply unconscionable.”

“As we are staring down a global pandemic, it is now more critical than ever for Congress to return to their important work and join together in a unified front to fight the disease and not each other,” she said in a statement. “The time has come for leaders of both political parties to collectively say enough is enough and return our country to civility and the rule of law.”

The riot, which many observers feel was encouraged by Trump at a rally earlier in the morning, seems in a way a microcosm of his presidency, which began with the possibility of upending the political order in a populist fashion but in the end seemed to only increase division and tensions.

Trump swept into office promising to lower drug prices and made several attempts through law and executive action, including a system that would benchmark US prices based on those of other countries. (Also see “Trump’s Drug Pricing Plan: The Headlines Are The Goal – But Also A Threat” - Pink Sheet, 15 Sep, 2020.)

And while these promises came mostly to naught, they forced pharma on defensive for most of his presidency. Whether industry can keep its winning streak up with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress remains to be seen.

Faced with the pricing challenge, pharma effectively shifted the debate to PBMs and other “middlemen” in the system. But industry did have to confront Trump directly at times, such as after he excoriated sponsors and the FDA for not making a coronavirus vaccine available before the election, saying the delays were purely political. Sponsors chose the high road, saying they were only following the science. (Also see “Moderna CEO Pushes Back On Trump Debate Comments On COVID Vaccine, Offers Own Timeline” - Pink Sheet, 30 Sep, 2020.)

For the country as a whole, the central question after the Trump presidency will be how will government function; for pharma, it will be how to prevent price control legislation; and for FDA it will be assessing how much the president’s criticism of and interference in its operations has damaged the agency’s reputation. (Also see “US FDA Finds There’s No Vaccine Against Politics” - Pink Sheet, 13 Dec, 2020.)