WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday named a longtime regulator of cancer medicines to lead the agency's drug center, replacing the former drug director who was recently ousted after an ethics complaint .

Dr. Richard Pazdur, a 26-year veteran of the agency, will become director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the FDA's largest unit. A cancer specialist, Pazdur has previously served in numerous FDA roles, most recently leading the agency's Oncology Center of Excellence.

Pazdur's appointment comes just over a week after Dr. George Tidmarsh abruptly departed the agency after federal ethics lawyers began reviewing “serious concerns about his personal conduct,” according to a government statement. Tidmarsh, a former pharmaceutical executive and scienti

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