Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted 15-6 today to advance the nomination of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli to serve as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The nomination now moves on to consideration by the full Senate. Dr. Bertagnolli – who currently serves as the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) – received support from Democrats and several Republicans, but Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., broke with Democrats to vote against her nomination.
Sen. Sanders said that while he likes Dr. Bertagnolli, he chose to vote against her because “this is a moment when we need leadership at the NIH which is really prepared to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, lower prescription drug prices in America, and move the NIH in a very, very different direction.”
Nevertheless, Ranking Member Bill Cassidy, R-La., expressed his support for the president’s nominee. If she is confirmed, he expects Dr. Bertagnolli “to listen to the NIH experts, who have consistently concluded it is not the NIH’s role to weigh in on drug pricing.”
The director position has remained vacant for over a year, and if confirmed, Dr. Bertagnolli would oversee various medical research institutions within the department, along with their associated data research.
Dr. Bertagnolli previously served as a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and as the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in the field of surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School.
