The U.S. Food and Drug Administration appointed Tracey Beth Høeg as acting director of its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Høeg, a physician-scientist who served as a special assistant to the FDA commissioner and helped lead a recent vaccine-safety probe, will be the fifth person to run CDER this year amid intense scrutiny and turnover at the agency. The move continues a high-profile reorganization of senior FDA ranks and will place Høeg at the center of drug-review policy and regulatory interactions with industry. The agency announcements and reporting note the speed of leadership changes and signal potential shifts in review practices and program priorities as CDER prepares for multiple high-stakes decisions in 2026.