President Barack Obama named Margaret Hamburg, former New York City Health Commissioner, to head the FDA. At the same time, he also named Baltimore City Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein as Hamburg’s principal deputy. Sharfstein previously worked for Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, a harsh critic of the pharmaceutical industry. When Obama announced his choices, much of his comments focused on food safety issues, an area of public embarrassment for the agency during the past year. Little, however, was said about the agency’s mission to regulate drugs and medical devices. We spoke to Peter Pitts, former FDA associate commissioner and president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest about Obama’s selections, what the President’s picks will mean for industry, and the challenges ahead for Hamburg and Sharfstein in their new jobs.