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| Keagan Lenihan |
Keagan Lenihan, who served as chief of staff and associate commissioner for external affairs & strategic initiatives at the Food and Drug Administration, is now at Philip Morris International.
She is VP of government affairs & public policy and head of the Washington office of the cigarette company.
Deepak Mishra, president of PMI Americas, said Lenihan’s “passion for and expertise in healthcare, life sciences and policy issues” will help the company “reach the next phase in its ambitious transformation away from cigarettes.”
At the FDA from March 2018 to January 2021, Lenihan oversaw daily management of the agency and helped promote its efforts to tackle opioid abuse and pursue tobacco regulation with an emphasis on discouraging young people from smoking.
Prior to the FDA, she was senior counselor to the Secretary of Dept. of Health and Human Services and was special assistant to President Donald Trump, working on staffing issues.
Lenihan joins PMI from Altoida, which she joined in April 2021.
PMI shipped 148.2B cigarettes during the first-quarter, up 2 percent from last year.
That growth came despite a 7.3 percent drop to 18.5B units sold in Eastern Europe due to the shutdown of sales to Russia.
The Marlboro brand grew 6.7 percent to 57.3B units, while Chesterfield sales rose 22.3 percent to 15.6B units.
L&M, PMI’s other Big 3 brand, was off 0.8 percent to 20.2B units.
Jim Weiss, founder & chairman of Real Chemistry, has joined the board of ICR Inc. as it steps up its healthcare capital markets offering.
Ruder Finn has hired Kelly Yoder, who spent a dozen years at Weber Shandwick rising to North America health lead, as managing director, global head of health & life sciences.
ICR has named John Capodanno head of US healthcare corporate communications and Matthew Willey managing director in its medical technology and diagnostics practice. 
April is National Minority Health Month, spotlighting the urgency to improve health outcomes in communities of color.
In a recent conversation about the evolving media landscape, Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media, spoke with Campbell O’Connor, Group Director, Media & Engagement at Real Chemistry, about how AI is influencing media relations and healthcare communications.
