FDA announced plans to appoint Richard Pazdur as head of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on November 11th, 2025. Pazdur, who has been with FDA since 1999 and currently serves as the head of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE), will succeed Dr. George Tidmarsh, who resigned earlier this month amid scrutiny concerning comments he made about a drug connected to a former business associate.
Dr. Pazdur was the founding director of OCE in 2017 and will continue to serve in that role until a successor is named. According to the release, Pazdur’s work with OCE has helped in speeding development of novel cancer therapies via “an integrated approach for cross-center coordination of oncology product review.” His initiatives at OCE include:
- Project Orbis, which provided a framework for concurrent submission and review of oncology products among international partners.
- Project Facilitate, which supported oncology professionals in completing expanded access requests for cancer patients.
- Project Renewal, which updated prescribing information for older oncology drugs.
“Dr. Pazdur is a true regulatory innovator who will help guide our broader agenda to modernize the agency and streamline the approval process,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in the release. “He has a track record of success and is an impressive forward-thinking scientist.”
“I’m honored to lead CDER at a time when the FDA is achieving long-sought regulatory reforms,” said Dr. Pazdur in the release. “I look forward to working closely with Dr. Makary and the medical experts he’s assembled to help our country reach its peak in drug development.”
Dr. Pazdur originally joined the FDA as director of the Division of Oncology Drug Products in 1999. In 2005, he was named as director at the Office of Hematology Oncology Products, and has served as acting director in the current iteration of this division (the Office of Oncologic Diseases) since 2019. Before working at FDA, Dr. Pazsur was a professor of medicine at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
