Democracy Dies in Darkness

Biden picks former West Virginia health official as nation’s drug czar

Rahul Gupta, ally of Manchin, would oversee drug policy strategy if confirmed

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July 13, 2021 at 11:14 a.m. EDT
Rahul Gupta, then commissioner of the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, in Charleston, W.Va., in 2017. (Philip Scott Andrews for The Washington Post)

President Biden on Tuesday nominated Rahul Gupta, a former West Virginia health official, to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy and steer the response to the opioid epidemic.

Gupta, a primary-care doctor who previously served as West Virginia’s health commissioner, led Biden’s transition efforts for the drug policy office and serves as the top health official at maternal and child advocacy group March of Dimes, would be the first physician to serve as drug czar if confirmed by the Senate.