Richard Pazdur, a veteran regulator at the Food and Drug Administration until last month, joined STAT in San Francisco on Monday evening to make his first public remarks about the circumstances leading up to his abrupt departure.

At an event held alongside the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Pazdur expressed grave concern about a disappearing firewall between political appointees and drug reviewers at the agency. He also argued there is not enough transparency around a new voucher program that grants accelerated review to certain drugs selected by Trump administration officials.