M.
Khair
ElZarrad
Ph.D., M.P.H.
Leadership Role
Director - Office of Medical Policy
M. Khair ElZarrad, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Director of the Office of Medical Policy (OMP) in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). He has served as the Deputy Director of OMP since 2017.
As Director of OMP, Dr. ElZarrad leads the development, coordination, and implementation of medical policy programs and strategic initiatives. He works collaboratively with other CDER program areas, FDA centers, and stakeholders on enhancing policies to improve drug development and regulatory review processes.
OMP is comprised of the Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) and the Office of Medical Policy Initiatives (OMPI). OPDP oversees the regulation of prescription drug promotion and advertising. OMPI provides oversight and direction for new and ongoing policy initiatives in broad-based medical and clinical policy areas.
Before joining FDA, he served as senior science policy analyst and Director of the Clinical and Healthcare Research Policy Division at the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He also served as a fellow on both the FDA’s Interagency Oncology Taskforce, as well as the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program within the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences.
Dr. ElZarrad earned his doctoral degree in medical sciences with a focus on understanding cancer metastases from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, his Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Samford University.