Margaret Hamburg

Hamburg is the daughter of Beatrix Hamburg and David A. Hamburg, both physicians. Her mother was the first self-identified African-American woman to be accepted at Vassar College[6] and to earn a degree from the Yale University School of Medicine.[7] Her father is President Emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and also served as the president of the AAAS in 1984.[8][9]

Hamburg graduated from Harvard College in 1977 and earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1983.[10] She completed her medical residency training at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

Hamburg is married to Peter Fitzhugh Brown, a computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert. The couple were married on May 23, 1992.[11] Brown is the chief executive officer of Renaissance Technologies.[12] Renaissance Technologies employees were collectively the top donors to President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign[13] and collectively the third largest donors to Hillary Clinton,[14] giving $15.5 million and $16.5 million respectively. The couple has two children together.

Hamburg was ranked on the list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women three times -- ranking 21^st in 2011, 61^st in 2012, and 59^th in 2013. [15]

Following her medical training, Hamburg moved to Washington, D.C., to begin her career in public service. She served in several roles, including Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. In 1991 Hamburg was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she served for six years, working first for Mayor David Dinkins and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. During her tenure, she worked on improved services for women and children, a needle-exchange program to reduce HIV transmission, a program to curtail the resurgence and spread of tuberculosis, and the nation's first public health bioterrorism preparedness program.[16]

In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Hamburg as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She served in this policy role until 2001 when she became the founding Vice President for Biological Programs and later the Senior Scientist for the Nuclear Threat Initiative,[17] a foundation dedicated to reducing the threat to public safety from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. In that role, Hamburg spearheaded efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to both naturally occurring and deliberately caused biological threats.

Two months prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hamburg was member to a meeting titled "Universal Flu Vaccine" (dated October 29, 2019) with other government officials including Anthony Fauci, speaking about the need to "blow up the system" in-order to bypass regulatory control on mRNA vaccines. Also discussed in the meeting, held at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, was the need to create an "aura of excitement" and "make influenza sexy" in order to revive government funding and have hyper-production of the mRNA vaccines which she and others in the meeting believed were superior to "traditional egg-based vaccines".[18]

Hamburg (center right) visits a California rice farm in 2013 while Commissioner of the FDA

Hamburg was nominated by President Barack Obama in March 2009 to become Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration,[19] and was unanimously confirmed in May 2009.[20] As FDA Commissioner she was known for advancing regulatory science, streamlining and modernizing FDA's regulatory pathways, and globalization of the agency, as well as the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009), the Food Safety Modernization Act (2011), and a review of the system for the evaluation and approval of medical devices.

Hamburg was the longest-serving FDA commissioner since David A. Kessler, as well as the second woman to hold the position.[21] She served at the FDA until her resignation on March 28, 2015.[22][23][24][25]

During Hamburg's tenure at the FDA, the agency was criticized for speeding approvals at the expense of safety, while some industry voices indicated the pace was "justified." The FDA, under Hamburg's leadership approved 51 drugs in 2014 alone, which was noted as being "most in more than 20 years" to which Hamburg attributes to "innovative approaches."[26]

In April 2015 Hamburg was appointed Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine.[27] In December 2016, Hamburg was named president-elect for the AAAS.[28] She serves a three-year term as an officer and member of the Executive Committee of the AAAS Board of Directors beginning in February 2017.

Margaret A. Hamburg at Spotlight Health, Aspen Ideas Festival, in 2015.

Hamburg is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American College of Physicians, as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Medicine, where she now serves as Foreign Secretary.

Hamburg has received numerous awards, among them the National Consumers League's Trumpeter Award in 2011[29] and the National Center for Health Research's 2011 Health Research Policy Hero Award.[30] She has also received the American College of Clinical Pharmacology's (ACCP) Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award,[31] the New York Academy of Medicine Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Health Policy,[32] the Radcliffe Alumnae Award and the American Lung Association's Breath of Life Award. Hamburg was the 2017 recipient of the FDAAA's Harvey W. Wiley Lecture Award for Outstanding Leadership in Advancing Public Health.

She is a distinguished senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies[33] and holds several Honorary Degrees.

Forbes named her as one of the world's 100 most powerful women multiple times, most recently in 2014 (#51).[34]

In 2022, Hamburg was awarded the AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize which honors individuals' groundbreaking work in the areas of public service, scientific achievement or notable services to community.[21]

in 2016, Hamburg, her husband, along with Johnson & Johnson, among others were named in a lawsuit;[52][53] the complaint alleging Dr. Hamburg, Renaissance Technologies, LLC conspired with Johnson & Johnson in suppressing safety information about the drug Levaquin. The suit further states that "Obama administration appointee, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, is at the heart of this scandal..." who, with her husband "profited enormously" from J&J stock, the maker of Levaquin.[54][55] The main arguments of the case are that (1) Hamburg, as FDA commissioner, had a conflict of interest with J&J as a result of her husband's firm's investments in the pharmaceutical firm; and (2) that Hamburg's work as FDA Commissioner benefitted J&J while hurting consumers due to safety problems with the drug Levaquin. The attorneys for the defense stated the lawsuit is "patently false, reckless and offensive."[55] Complainants in the suit seek $800M in damages from the defendants, for "hiding side effects" of the drug.[56] The suit, filed by activist Larry Klayman, was dismissed in 2017 by a District of Columbia federal judge.[57]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Margaret A. Hamburg.

• FDA Biography
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• Margaret Hamburg on LinkedIn
• Personal Bio
• Appearances on C-SPAN