After months of back and forth, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Wednesday advanced the nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to lead the National Institutes of Health by a vote of 15-6, with ranking member Bill Cassidy, R-La., voting for President Joe Biden’s nominee and Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., opposing it.
“I like her, but I think this is a moment where we need leadership with the NIH which is really prepared to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry,” Sanders said of Bertagnolli just ahead of the vote.
Sanders has long used Bertagnolli’s nomination to make a point about the Biden administration’s prescription drug policy. When Biden first announced plans to nominate Bertagnolli in May, Sanders delayed her confirmation hearing for months because of concerns that the Biden administration was not doing enough to lower the cost of prescription drugs.