President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health faced detailed policy questions about drug costs and biomedical research but few political fireworks during her Wednesday appearance in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The relatively bipartisan nature of nominee Monica Bertagnolli’s confirmation hearing came as somewhat of a surprise, considering the tumult that preceded her Senate appearance and how politicized the agency became during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democrats on the committee quizzed the nominee on what she would do to lower drug costs, while Republicans focused on restoring public trust in the agency.
