Richard Pazdur, M.D., currently Director of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has been named the new Director of the Center of Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). He takes over following the former CDER Director, Dr. George Tidmarsh, M.D., Ph.D., leaving the post earlier this month (November 2025). CDER is the center within FDA that regulates prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs, both innovator drugs and generic drugs and biosimilars. 

Prazur’s appointment as the new head of CDER comes with several leadership changes at CDER in 2025. Tidmarsh was CDER Director for only a few months having been appointed in July (July 2025) and leaving the post earlier this month (November 2025). He took over from Dr. Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, M.D., who served as CDER’s Acting Director from January to July 2025 after its former head, Patrizia Cavazzoni, M.D., stepped down earlier in January (January 2025). Cavazzoni served as Director of CDER from April 2021 to January 2025. 

Dr. Pazdur joined the FDA in 1999 as Director of CDER’s Division of Oncology Drug Products. In 2005, he led the consolidation of the divisions that reviewed drugs and therapeutic biologics for cancer and hematologic diseases into the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products (OHOP). In 2019, OHOP was reorganized to become the Office of Oncologic Diseases (OOD). He serves as the Acting Director of OOD. Dr. Pazdur will continue to serve as Director of the Oncology Center of Excellence until a successor is named. 

Prior to coming to the FDA, Dr. Pazdur was Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. From 1988 to 1999, he held the administrative positions of Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, Associate Director of Clinical Trials Administration (Division of Medicine), and Director of Educational Programs (Division of Medicine). From 1982 to 1988, he served on the faculty of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. 

Source: US Food and Drug Administration