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President Obama’s pick to run the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Robert M. Califf, was finally confirmed for the job by the Senate on Wednesday, in a vote of 89 to 4, after weeks of opposition from a handful of lawmakers who had blocked his nomination over what they said was the agency’s poor record on prescription painkillers. (Tavernise, 2/25)

The new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday his top priorities will include using databases and electronic medical records as early-warning systems to pinpoint safety lapses of drugs and medical devices. (Burton, 2/24)

Califf, who joined the FDA a year ago after decades as a researcher and administrator at Duke University, was nominated by President Obama to run the agency last September. But in the months that followed, his nomination faced opposition from a handful of senators, over everything from the nation's prescription painkiller epidemic to genetically engineered salmon.(Dennis, 2/24)

Now that the Senate has officially approved Dr. Robert Califf as the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, he’ll inherit an agency that is being pushed to approve new medical treatments more quickly without sacrificing safety — and facing pressure to act on a host of public health issues, including drug prices and the Zika virus, over which his agency has little control. (Kaplan, 2/24)

After five months of delays, the Senate voted 89-4 on Wednesday to confirm cardiologist Dr. Robert Califf, a longtime Duke University drug-trial researcher, as the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Califf was nominated to the post by President Obama in September, but concerns about his ties to the pharmaceutical industry and some of the FDA’s practices tied up his confirmation. (Bergengruen, 2/24)