DOH official Paolo Teston named new FDA chief

Metro Manila, Philippines - Health Undersecretary Paolo Teston has been appointed as the new director-general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), replacing Samuel Zacate.

Malacañang confirmed the development on Friday, May 15, but did not issue any comment on why Zacate was replaced.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FDA said Teston addressed the agency’s officials employees for the first time during the flag-raising ceremony.

“I assume this role with a clear and urgent mandate: to raise the standard of service at the FDA—not through promises or plans alone, but through action. At seryoso po tayo sa layuning ito [We are serious in this goal],” Teston was quoted as saying.

According to the statement, Teston is set to conduct a thorough review of FDA’s “core operations, including inspection, licensing, and monitoring, to ensure the safety of health products.”

Teston recently served as health undersecretary and led the Health Regulation and Facility Development Cluster of the Department of Health (DOH).

The cluster includes the Health Facility Development Bureau, the Health Facilities and Services Regulatory Bureau, and the Bureau of Quarantine.

“A lawyer by training, DG Teston brings both legal acumen and administrative experience to the FDA,” the statement read. “He is also an active member of the DOH Executive Committee and has pledged to represent the agency’s interests at the highest levels of policy-making and governance guided by President Marcos’s whole-of-society and whole-of-government approach.”

The FDA, a regulatory agency under the DOH, is mandated to ensure the safety, efficacy or quality of health products.

Products include food, drugs, cosmetics, devices, biologicals, vaccines, in-vitro diagnostic reagents, radiation-emitting devices or equipment, and household/urban hazardous substances, including pesticides and toys, or consumer products that may have an effect on health which require regulations as determined by the agency.