President-elect Trump has nominated biotech investor Jim O’Neill for deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services department.
The HHS deputy secretary oversees the day-to-day operations of all sub-agencies, whose missions include running the Medicare and Medicaid program, leading public health emergency preparedness, shaping federal research, and more. O’Neill would also oversee the development and clearance of HHS regulations, and work under Trump’s pick for HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Jim and RFK Jr. will fight in unison to ensure every American, and especially our most precious resource, our children, will live long and healthy lives and, Make America Great and Healthy Again!” Trump said in a statement on the platform Truth Social.
O’Neill is close to the billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founding the Thiel Fellowship and serving as managing director of his investment firm Mithril Capital Management. Mithril also employed Ohio senator and vice president-elect JD Vance, with whom O’Neill has “enjoyed engrossing conversations about technology, biology, and culture,” according to his post on X. The investor currently sits on the board of ADvantage Therapeutics, a biotech company developing therapies to treat Alzheimer’s. He is a big advocate of longevity medicine and a libertarian.
O’Neill’s name came up during the last Trump administration as a contender for Food and Drug Administration commissioner. He was considered a radical pick for commissioner, as he had previously proposed that the agency initially approve drugs based only on their safety, and not their efficacy. He ultimately lost out to Scott Gottlieb, a drug industry investor and a more traditional pick.
This time around, Trump is nominating more anti-establishment types to his cabinet, starting with RFK Jr., who’s a long-time vaccine critic and leader of the Make America Healthy Again. Johns Hopkins surgeon and Covid vaccine mandate skeptic Marty Makary is up for FDA commissioner.
O’Neill has aligned himself with RFK Jr. in various X posts, including a post from November criticizing vaccine mandates and telling followers “let’s make America healthy again.” He’s also echoed RFK’s concerns about fluoride levels in drinking water, and about the food industry’s influence on dietary guidelines.
Earlier in his career, he worked as a speechwriter and policy adviser at HHS during the George W. Bush administration before becoming an investor. At HHS, he worked on pandemic preparedness, FDA reform, public health, and other projects.
The role of deputy secretary at HHS requires Senate confirmation, but O’Neill may have an easier time getting confirmed given his prior government experience. If it takes RFK Jr. a while to win over Congress next year, O’Neill could serve as acting secretary.
