Aptinyx Inc. announced the appointment of Rachel Sherman, M.D., M.P.H., former principal deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to the company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Dr. Sherman, a renowned expert in medical policy, served at the FDA for nearly 30 years until her retirement early in 2019. Most recently at the FDA, she was the principal deputy commissioner—the commissioner’s most senior policy advisor and the agency’s highest position not politically appointed. Dr. Sherman held this position from 2017 until her retirement. Additional senior-level roles she held while at the FDA included deputy commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco in the Office of the Commissioner and director of the Office of Medical Policy in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). During her time with the Agency, Dr. Sherman played lead roles in numerous policy and organizational initiatives credited with enhancing product development and facilitating patient access to innovative medicines, including expedited drug development and breakthrough therapy designation programs as well as the Opioid Policy Steering Committee. Dr. Sherman is currently president of Rachel Sherman Partners LLC, a drug development, regulatory, and policy consulting firm she founded in 2019 following her retirement from the FDA. She also serves as a clinical lecturer at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and as a senior policy fellow at Duke University’s Margolis Center for Health Policy.