A Senate health panel on Wednesday voted to send President Biden’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health to the chamber’s floor, moving Monica Bertagnolli one step closer to taking the longtime vacant role of permanent director.
The Senate HELP Committee advanced her nomination on a 15-6 vote, with many Republicans voting in support and only Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) breaking with the Democratic caucus to vote against her.
Sanders said Tuesday that he would oppose Bertagnolli’s nomination because she had “not convinced me that she is prepared to take on the greed and power of the drug companies and health care industry and fight for the transformative changes the NIH needs at this critical moment.”
The chairman had also refused to schedule her confirmation hearing this summer, demanding that the administration take more aggressive action to lower drug costs through tactics including low price requirements for drugmakers developing products based on NIH-funded research.
In a seeming concession to the chairman, health officials last month touted a monoclonal antibody agreement with Regeneron that included such a requirement. However, Bertagnolli has declined to commit to more broadly tacking a reasonable pricing clause onto agreements.
Sanders scheduled her hearing after that deal but has continued to rally for reform and probes at the agency. Last week he called for an investigation into an exclusive patent the NIH doled out for a cervical cancer treatment this September. The product is made by Scarlet TCR, a small company run by a former NIH employee.
Despite Sanders’ appeals to other Democrats to join him in a “vote of conscience,” the rest of the caucus endorsed Bertagnolli on Wednesday.
“She is a renowned leader, seasoned oncologist, researcher and director and her record and endless accomplishments give me no doubt that she is an excellent choice to the NIH,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said. “Getting a permanent NIH director on board is of the utmost importance.”
The agency has not had a permanent director in nearly two years, leaving Lawrence Tabak as the acting director.
The other five votes against Bertagnolli came from Republican senators Rand Paul, Mike Braun, Tommy Tuberville, Markwayne Mullin, and Ted Budd. Each of the senators had raised concerns about NIH research and Bertagnolli’s stance on certain politicized issues such as the origins of Covid-19 and funding gender-affirming care research.
Bertagnolli last week told senators that “any research that we do that involves human beings, people, is conducted according to the highest ethical principles,” and said transgender people are among America’s most vulnerable populations.
Her nomination will now move to the Senate floor for a full vote, though it is unclear when that will be scheduled.