FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigns |
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigns
Marty Makary out at FDA
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary officially stepped down from his role on Tuesday.
Makary managed to anger just about every constituency, from the pharma and biotech industries to the anti-abortion movement, but the end of his tenure was brought about by his opposition to approving vape products.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that President Trump had signed off on plans to fire Makary, though the president claimed to know nothing about these reports over the weekend. By Tuesday afternoon, Trump confirmed that Makary had resigned.
“Marty’s a terrific guy but he’s going to go on and he’s going to lead a good life,” Trump told reporters. “He was having some difficulty. You know, he’s a great doctor and he was having some difficulty.”
In his text message resignation, Makary wrote to Trump, “Dr. President Trump, Please accept my resignation, effective today,”
“During my tenure, I announced 50 major FDA reforms. Joe Biden’s FDA had none. I’m extremely proud that we reduced drug review times from a year to 1-2 months, wrote new guidance to advance psychedelics, introduced a new ‘plausible mechanism’ pathway for rare disease drugs, and changed estrogen labels to tell women the truth about menopausal hormone replacement,” he added.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the nail in the coffin was Makary’s opposition to approving new vape products.
Tony Abboud, president of the Vapor Technology Association, told The Hill he had met with Makary just last week and he seemed to be coming around to the industry’s point of view. Despite this, Abboud described Makary as “very........