Larry R. Pilot is an attorney and pharmacist living in northern Virginia. After graduating from Wayne State University in 1962 with a B.S. in Pharmacy, he began his professional career as a pharmacist in Detroit, Michigan. From 1964 to 1966, Pilot worked for the American Pharmaceutical Association, the national professional society of pharmacists, in Washington, D.C. He joined the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association in 1966, and while there earned a J.D. from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. In 1969, Pilot joined the staff of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and he moved to the Food and Drug Administration later that year as Special Assistant to Commissioner Charles C. Edwards. In 1971, Pilot and a colleague created the FDA’s Office of Medical Devices, where he would later be tasked with implementing the Medical Device Amendments of 1976.

Pilot was honored with the FDA’s Award of Merit in 1977 for his contributions to the development of the agency’s medical device programs. Upon his departure from the FDA in 1979, he began practicing law, and his clients included dozens of small and large medical device firms as well as the Medical Device Manufacturers Association. In 2008, Larry Pilot retired as a partner with the firm of McKenna, Long & Aldridge, but he continues to advise medical device industry clients and contribute to scholarship and analysis on device regulation.

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