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President-elect Donald J. Trump is reaching beyond traditional medical experts in his search for a new Food and Drug Administration commissioner, scheduling meetings for the FDA job with two Silicon Valley investors backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel. The two are James O’Neill, a managing director of the investment firm Mithril Capital Management, and Balaji S. Srinivasan, a venture capital board member who founded the genetic-counseling firm Counsyl Inc. (Burton, 1/13)

President-elect Donald Trump is considering former biotechnology industry executive Balaji Srinivasan to lead the Food and Drug Administration, according to people familiar with the matter, putting another candidate in the running who is aligned with venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Srinivasan co-founded Counsyl Inc. and helped develop a pregnancy test to quickly detect Down syndrome and other severe, chromosome-related birth defects. That could put him at odds with Republicans, since such tests are used early in pregnancy to help couples make decisions about abortion. (Cortez and Edney, 1/13)