Biden picks Google Health executive as FDA chief

US President Joe Biden has picked senior Google Health advisor Dr Robert Califf as next chief of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Currently, Califf is a professor of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine, where he previously served as Vice Chancellor and founded the Duke Clinical Research Institute, and works as senior advisor for Verily Life Sciences and Google Health, two divisions of parent company Alphabet.

He has led many landmark clinical trials and is one of the most frequently cited authors in biomedical science, with more than 1,200 publications in the peer-reviewed literature.

"As the FDA considers many consequential decisions around vaccine approvals and more, it is mission critical that we have a steady, independent hand to guide the FDA," Biden said in a statement on Friday.

"I am confident Dr Califf will ensure that the FDA continues its science and data drive decision-making," he added.

Alphabet is pushing more aggressively into the healthcare indutry.

Latest health research include a Verily Covid-19 testing programme, Google tool to identify skin conditions, personal health records, and machine learning (ML) projects.

Dr Califf is an internationally-recognised expert in clinical trial research, health disparities, healthcare quality, and cardiovascular medicine.