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Former FDA Chief Gottlieb Heads to Pfizer’s Board: Brainstorm Health

Good afternoon, readers – and a short one for you amid some busy times.

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb abruptly resigned from his post earlier this year following a tenure marked by aggressive changes is drug approval, digital health, and tobacco policy. On Thursday, he announced he’s already got a new gig – with one of the very pharmaceutical giants he recently regulated.

“I'm honored to be joining the board of directors of Pfizer and working together with more than 90,000 Pfizer colleagues to promote medical innovation, advance patient care, and secure access to better healthcare outcomes for families around the world,” Gottlieb wrote in a tweet.

Gottlieb’s ties to multiple health and biopharmaceutical companies riled critics during his confirmation process for the FDA’s top perch. He pledged to recuse himself from any decisions involving companies in which he’d had a financial interest in exchange, and garnered a reputation as a reformer (even as some of his decisions remained controversial). Fortune named Gottlieb to the 2019 list of World’s Greatest Leaders.

Now, out from his government job, he appears to have gone back to the industry fold.

Read on for the day’s news, back with more tomorrow.

Sy Mukherjee
@the_sy_guy
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com

DIGITAL HEALTH

Cardiogram, Fitbit team up in health screening partnership. Digital health firms Fitbit and Cardiogram have joined hands in a large-scale health screening partnership, the companies announced. Cardiogram's functionality (tracking health metrics such as sleep patterns and heart rate in relation to various activities and then turning them into personalized insights for users) makes sense as a, ahem, fit for Fitbit, which is still a wearables market giant. "Fitbit wearables have remarkably consistent heart rate accuracy, enhanced sleep tracking, and extended battery life, all of which improve a user's experience with Cardiogram as well," said Brandon Ballinger, co-founder and CEO of Cardiogram, in a statement.

INDICATIONS

Biotech IPOs are popping. Yet another slew of biotechs had major market pops following recent public offerings this week: "First, Bridgebio Pharma Inc. opened 80% above Wednesday's IPO price, the biggest opening gain by any biotech or pharma IPO this year. It dethroned Stoke Therapeutics Inc., which opened 51% above its IPO price just last week," Bloomberg reports. Adaptive Biotechnologies got in on the action, too, trading twice as high as its IPO pricing. (Fortune)

REQUIRED READING

Meet Andrew Yang, the Entrepreneur and Democratic Candidate Who Wants to Give You $1,000 Each Month, by Sy Mukherjee

Apple's Latest Acquisition Shows Self-Driving Cars Are in the Doldrums of Disappointment, by David Z. Morris

Ford's New Plan for Europe: Fewer Jobs, More SUVs, by David Meyer

[ceo_attribution author="Produced by Sy Mukherjee" email="sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com" twitter="the_sy_guy"]

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