FDA enlists Iilun Murphy as permanent OGD director

Patrizia Cavazzoni, head of the FDA’s drug center, announced via email to staff today that Iilun Murphy will take over as permanent director of the Office of Generic Drugs (OGD), replacing Susan Rosencrance, who has served as acting OGD director since October.

But OGD is also getting a closer look from the very top of FDA as recent generic cancer drug shortages have led to new imports from China, in addition to new safety questions related to the US military re-testing generics (see this Bloomberg story yesterday).

That additional oversight is coming from CDER principal deputy center director Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, who, Cavazzoni wrote, “under my direction, will assume oversight of OGD and the Generics program, which will align with and complement her role as Chair of the GDUFA Steering Committee.”

Iilun Murphy

Murphy, a board-certified pediatrician and an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine, will take over as permanent director of OGD on June 18 from former permanent director Sally Choe, who left the agency last October after serving as permanent director for almost three years.

Acting OGD director Rosencrance, meanwhile, will assist with the transition for Murphy and serve as the acting principal deputy director for OGD before returning to her permanent role as director of the Office of Lifecycle Drug Products in the Office of Pharmaceutical Quality at the end of August, according to the Cavazzoni email.

“I would like to recognize and thank Susan for her leadership and support as acting OGD director these past eight months. Her many years of experience with the generic drug program were invaluable in temporarily filling a critical leadership vacancy,” Cavazzoni wrote.

Cavazzoni also wrote that Murphy, who will now join CDER’s executive committee, is an accomplished leader with more than 15 years of experience at the agency, and rejoined CDER in January 2020 as OGD’s deputy director for clinical and regulatory affairs, where she oversaw the implementation of Generic Drug User Fee Amendments (GDUFA) goals and review management activities.

She also served as acting director for OGD’s new Office of Safety and Clinical Evaluation during its first year.

fda