At a hearing, Dr. Marty Makary, the nominee for F.D.A. commissioner, fielded questions focused on whether he would review or reopen certain policy areas.
At a confirmation hearing for Dr. Marty Makary on Thursday, senators focused heavily on the safety of the abortion pill, with Republican lawmakers urging him to restrict access and Democratic lawmakers demanding that he maintain its current availability.
Dr. Makary, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, signaled that he shared Republicans’ concerns about the current policy, issued during the Biden administration, which expanded access by allowing people to obtain the pills without an in-person medical appointment.
Several Democrats pointed to volumes of studies showing that the drugs are safe. Dr. Makary told members of the Senate health committee, which held the hearing, that he would review the pill’s safety and the policy at issue.
He said he would “take a solid, hard look at the data and to meet with the professional career scientists who have reviewed the data at the F.D.A. and to build an expert coalition to review the ongoing data, which is required to be collected.”
The hearing also touched on vaccines, with several lawmakers, including the committee chairman, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, questioning why an advisory committee meeting on next year’s flu vaccine had been canceled in recent weeks and asking whether it would be held later. He and others stressed that the flu panel met annually, and some reminded Dr. Makary that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the F.D.A. as health secretary, had pledged transparency in agency decision-making.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, called the cancellation “unprecedented and dangerous” after decades of annual meetings.