The Food and Drug Administration’s head of vaccines and biotechnology drugs, Dr. Vinay Prasad, is leaving the agency as of April, following a series of clashes with the pharmaceutical industry in which he was accused of unfairly blocking or hamstringing approvals.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Prasad would be leaving the agency at the end of March and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary is actively looking for replacements for the position.
Prasad, whom Makary described last week on CNBC as being “on loan” from the University of California, San Francisco, as a professor, has served as the FDA division chief for reviewing many cancer drugs and gene therapies for rare disease as well as vaccines.
But Prasad has been a source of controversy for the FDA and the Trump administration’s healthcare agenda, most recently over claims that he relay too much information about a denied treatment application.
A few hours before the first report of Prasad’s departure on Friday, Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) accused Prasad on X of “disclosing trade secret information without legal authorization” during a press call this week about an experimental drug from the pharmaceutical company uniQure to treat the rare genetic disorder Huntington’s disease.
Multiple outlets reported on Thursday that an FDA official, during a call with reporters, accused uniQure of pushing “distorted” data to mask a “failed” therapy for the rare disease.
On Monday, shares of uniQure plummeted more than 40% after the FDA announced it had rejected its new Huntington’s disease therapy.
HHS declined to comment on Auchincloss’ accusation. The Washington Examiner contacted Prasad for comment.
This is the second time that the Trump administration has announced Prasad’s departure from the agency. He was fired in August by the White House after right-wing activist Laura Loomer revealed Prasad previously supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and certain leftist policies.
He was rehired shortly thereafter following conversations between Makary, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and White House advisers.
Prasad was one of the leading architects behind the agency’s new initiative announced in February to decrease barriers for rare disease treatments, opening the door for personalized gene therapies.
But he also made headlines in February after abruptly blocking Moderna’s new flu vaccine following conflicts over the company’s clinical trial methodology.
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Prasad joined the FDA last year after the administration ousted his predecessor, Dr. Peter Marks, who was one of the leading architects of Operation Warp Speed, the operation in Trump’s first term to hasten the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
An accomplished academic with more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers, Prasad gained notoriety by podcasting during the COVID pandemic and for his opposition to vaccine mandates.
