The U.S. Senate has confirmed Dr. Stephen Hahn as the next commissioner of the FDA.
The vote was 72 to 18, according to a report in the New York Times. Hahn will be the first permanent commissioner of the agency since Dr. Scott Gottlieb resigned in April.
President Trump nominated Hahn, the chief medical officer at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in November. Hahn supplanted other candidates, including acting commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless, who will return to the National Cancer Institute, according to a report by The Hill. Dr. Brett Giroir, the current assistant secretary for health, stepped in as acting FDA commissioner while the Senate considered Hahn’s nomination.