Newly confirmed and sworn-in FDA Commissioner Robert Califf spelled out some of his priorities in a Feb. 17 memo to the agency’s staff and repeated them in a series of tweets from his brand-new Twitter account — @DrCaliff_FDA.

Califf will now steer the FDA through at least the end of President Biden’s first term. He faces the ongoing pandemic as well as the incorporation of real-world evidence more directly into the FDA’s drug approval decisions and controversy over decisions made under the agency’s accelerated approval pathway.

Other listed priorities include maintaining the agency’s “reliance on the best available science and most rigorous data” in its decisions, strengthening the agency’s response to the opioid and stimulant crisis, and “countering misinformation about science and the FDA that has become increasingly prevalent.”

Califf also said he will work on improving the FDA’s ability to collect and analyze data in order to “have the necessary and best evidence to make well-informed decisions” across the FDA’s areas of responsibility.