The Trump transition team is eyeing a former Bush administration Health and Human Services Department policy czar and outreach advocate to head the Food and Drug Administration, an agency the president-elect is expected to shake up and demand quicker drug approvals from.
What’s more, Jim O’Neill has an inside track. He is the former head of the Thiel Foundation founded by Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder and early Facebook investor who is helping President-elect Trump form is leadership team.
O’Neill currently works at San Francisco-based Mithril, the global tech investment firm co-founded by Thiel.
Am told JIM O’NEILL is now a finalist for FDA. pic.twitter.com/H29CBnpNBN
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) December 7, 2016
O’Neill served in the Bush administration, first as a speechwriter and rising to principal associate deputy secretary at HHS where he was responsible for the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Office of Public Health and Science, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and global health.
From his Mithril bio:
Prior to Mithril, Jim was a managing director of Clarium and ran the Thiel Foundation, where he cofounded the 20 under 20 Thiel Fellowship and Breakout Labs. Prior to Clarium, Jim served as the principal associate deputy secretary of health and human services and made investments in drug, vaccine, and diagnostic research. Jim received a B.A. from Yale and an A.M from the University of Chicago.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
