US Senate Confirms Indian-Origin Jay Bhattacharya As Director Of Top US Medical Research Agency

Indian-origin professor Jay Bhattacharya has been confirmed as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by the US Senate on Tuesday (25 March).

He is a professor at Stanford School of Medicine.

As per the US Senate's official website, Bhattacharya secured the position with a 53-47 vote during the first session of the roll call vote in the 119th Congress, NDTV reported.

In a previous nomination statement by US President Donald Trump, Bhattacharya was described as a professor of health policy at Stanford University.

He also serves as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Hoover Institution.

Additionally, he leads Stanford's Centre for Demography and Economics of Health and Ageing. His research focuses on government programmes, biomedical innovation, and economic aspects of healthcare.

He co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, advocating an alternative to lockdowns.

His peer-reviewed studies have appeared in various journals covering economics, statistics, law, medicine, public health, and health policy.

The statement also mentioned that Bhattacharya, along with newly appointed US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, aims to restore the NIH to a "Gold Standard of Medical Research."

Earlier in February, the US Senate confirmed Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic, as US Health and Human Services Secretary with a vote of 52-48.

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