Trump administration’s embattled FDA vaccine chief ousted for the second time | Trump administration

The Food and Drug Administration’s embattled vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad is once again leaving the institution; It is his second departure in less than a year following decisions that included reviews of vaccines and special drugs for rare diseases.

FDA commissioner Marty Makary announced the news in an email to FDA staff late Friday, saying Prasad would leave at the end of April. Prasad will return to his academic job at the University of California, San Francisco, Makary said.

Prasad’s latest dismissal follows a series of high-profile controversies involving the FDA’s review of vaccines, gene therapies and biotech drugs; Companies have criticized the agency for reversal on these issues, in some cases calling for new trials of products that had previously been given the green light by regulators.

In July, Prasad was briefly suspended from his job after falling out with biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of Donald Trump. He was reinstated less than two weeks later, with the support of health minister Robert F Kennedy Jr and Makary.

Prasad, a longtime academic and critic of the FDA’s drug review standards, has taken a seemingly contradictory approach to regulation since arriving at the FDA last May. Prasad has repeatedly joined Makary in announcing steps that will make FDA drug reviews faster and easier for companies. But it also introduced new warnings and study requirements for some biotech drugs and vaccines, particularly Covid vaccines, which have long been a target for Kennedy, who was a longtime anti-vaccine activist before joining the Trump administration.