Chester Davis, jumping ship from PhRMA, is new GPhA president

The Generic Pharmaceutical Assn. has appointed Chester “Chip” Davis as its new president and CEO, effective Aug. 18, succeeding G. Ralph Neas, Until now, Davis had been the EVP for advocacy at PhRMA, the trade association of research-based pharma companies.

When announcing, at the beginning of this year, his intention to leave office, Neas said that he intended to “explore leadership opportunities that have been presented to me regarding nonpartisan electoral reform and various entrepreneurial ventures in affordable health care, as well as the chance to resume part-time writing and teaching.” Davis has offered this statement: “"From policymakers to patients to providers, discussions on how to promote access while simultaneously generating health savings are taking center stage. Generic drugs, and soon biosimilars, play a vital role in holding down costs, and this industry's record of savings and access must not only continue, but flourish.”

The revolving door for public-private employment, in the year before national elections, is already in motion: Last week, the board of directors of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) unanimously elected Marily Tavenner as AHIP president and CEO; she was the administrator of CMS. Margaret Hamburg, FDA commissioner, stepped down in March, and has been replaced by Stephen Ostroff, MD, former FDA chief scientist, as acting commissioner.