White House Plans to Fire FDA Chief Marty Makary, Sources Tell WSJ
Would this fix the problem… or create a bigger one?
This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
The Trump administration has signed off on a plan to fire Dr. Marty Makary, who heads up the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The Wall Street Journal reported late today. However, citing “people familiar with the matter,” the WSJ said, “Trump’s plan isn’t yet final and could change.”
The Trump administration has signed off on a plan to fire Dr. Marty Makary, who heads up the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The Wall Street Journal reported today.
However, citing “people familiar with the matter,” the WSJ said, “Trump’s plan isn’t yet final and could change.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the FDA, did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the reports.
Over the past week, reports began circulating about the possible firing, citing concerns over Makary’s decisions on drug approvals, vaccines and the FDA decision to allow a generic form of the so-called abortion pill mifepristone, Reuters reported.
According to the WSJ, “Top administration officials have become increasingly convinced Makary has to go because, in addition to months of turmoil, complaints from some in the pharmaceutical industry have continued to mount.”
In one case, the administration was frustrated that he did not move fast enough to approve flavored vapes and other nicotine products from Los Angeles manufacturer Glas, because he was worried they would encourage youth vaping. He reversed his position and approved the flavors under pressure from the Trump administration.
Makary’s departure would be the latest in a series of high-profile exits from the agency among people generally aligned with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on public health issues.
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, who was also the interim leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), left his post in February. That same month, Dr. Ralph Abraham resigned as principal deputy director of the CDC, citing unforeseen family obligations.
Dr. Vinay Prasad, who served as the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) director, announced in March that he was leaving the FDA at the end of April.
Makary, a pancreatic cancer surgeon and health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University and former editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, was tapped by Trump to lead the agency in November 2024. He was confirmed by the Senate in March of last year.
Makary rose in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as a critic of COVID-19 public health policies. He authored a book criticizing medical “groupthink,” which he defines as “the human tendency to follow a crowd and not thinking independently.”
Early on, Makary also expressed support for Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.
While Makary was leading the agency, the FDA took action on food dyes, including working with major ultraprocessed food makers to phase out artificial colors by 2027.
The FDA also announced it may take action against unapproved prescription fluoride supplements for use by children under age 3 or older children at low or moderate risk of tooth decay.
The FDA also announced it would no longer routinely approve COVID-19 shots for healthy adults under 65 and children without underlying health problems, although under the new rule, hundreds of millions of people remained eligible for the shots.
Many in the MAHA movement criticized Makary’s FDA for not pulling the COVID-19 mRNA shots from the market.
Related articles in The Defender
Donate to Children’s Health Defense
