Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: FDA Executive Controversy

Group 1: FDA and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals - George Tidmarsh has resigned as director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research amid accusations of making false statements about Aurinia Pharmaceuticals' lupus nephritis treatment and soliciting a bribe [4][3] - Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has filed a federal lawsuit against Tidmarsh, claiming he made false statements and sought a bribe in retaliation against its chairman, Kevin Tang [4] - Tidmarsh criticized the FDA's new National Priority Review Voucher program, suggesting it could alter drug approval processes without adequate legal support [4] Group 2: Autonomous Driving - Baidu's Apollo Go unit has achieved a milestone of over 250,000 fully driverless rides per week as of October 31, matching the weekly rides reported by Waymo [5] - The total number of robotaxi rides operated by Apollo Go during the quarter ending June 30 was 2.2 million, averaging around 169,000 rides per week [6] Group 3: Nvidia and U.S. Market - President Trump announced that Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell chips will be exclusively available to U.S. companies, restricting access to other countries [7]