Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. (July 18, 1933–February 11, 2010) was an American pharmacologist. As Commissioner of Food and Drugs, he led the Food and Drug Administration.
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Hayes was the son of Arthur Hayes Sr., and Florence Gruber Hayes. He has two sisters and one brother. His father was the president of CBS Radio.
Arthur was a graduate of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Elementary School, graduating in 1947. Around 1955, at the age of 21, Arthur received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Santa Clara University. After turning 23, he traveled to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar where he earned a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. In 1964, he began to study medicine and graduated from Cornell University Medical School until he served three years in the Army Medical Corps.
After serving in the Army Medical Corps, he became an assistant professor of medicine and pharmacology at Cornell, and later became a director of clinical pharmacology at the Pennsylvania State University Medical School. he granted his approval for the use of the sugar substitute aspartame in dry foods and a tabletop sweetener.
Hayes was Commissioner of Food and Drugs in 1982 during the Chicago Tylenol murders, which caused nationwide alarm after seven people died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules which had been laced with potassium cyanide. Under Hayes' leadership, the government and the drug industry responded by developing the first federal regulations requiring tamper-evident packaging for all over-the-counter drugs.
After leaving the FDA in 1983, he was dean of New York Medical College and was named president of EM Pharmaceuticals Inc..
Hayes died from leukemia on February 11, 2010 at the age of 76. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Anne Carey; a son, Arthur, two daughters, Lisa Hayes and Kathy Saracino; two sisters, Mary Ann Kelley and Florence Hayes; his brother, Joseph; and eight grandchildren.