President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday likened the nation's opioid crisis to the Ebola and Zika public health emergencies.

During his Senate confirmation hearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Scott Gottlieb, a physician, health policy analyst and financial entrepreneur, was quizzed on what his response would be to the crisis.

"This is a staggering human tragedy that is going to require dramatic action on the part of the agency," Gottlieb said, adding the FDA's response had been "too incremental" over the years – and the agency had been "complicit, even if unwittingly" in helping to fuel the epidemic, The Washington Post reported.

He called the crisis a "public health emergency on the order of Ebola and Zika" that would require dramatic action by the agency – and a new strategy would be his "highest and most immediate priority."

That strategy, he explained, would involve taking a hard look at the FDA's framework for approving painkillers and pressing for greater availability of nonaddictive painkillers, the Post reported.

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