Obama to name Margaret Hamburg to head FDA

President Barack Obama is expected to name Margaret Hamburg, a former New York city health commissioner and a bioterrorism expert, to head the Food and Drug Administration and Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore’s health commissioner, as her deputy, according to media reports.

The appointments are expected to be formally announced this week. Dr Hamburg’s appointment will need to be confirmed by the Senate.

Dr Hamburg, aged 53, is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. She trained at New York Presbyterian Hospital and specialised in internal medicine. She later did neuroscience research at Rockefeller University in New York and at the National Institute of …