FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced his resignation after a rocky year

The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, is resigning after a rocky tenure that drew months of complaints from health industry executives, anti-abortion activists and other allies of President Donald Trump. He steps down after just over a year leading the powerful health regulatory agency, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak before an official announcement and insisted on anonymity. Makary, a surgeon and health researcher, came to the attention of Republican operatives as an outspoken critic of COVID-19 health measures during the pandemic when he frequently appeared on Fox News. But he struggled to manage the FDA’s bureaucracy and failed to win the confidence of its staff after mass layoffs, leadership changes and a series of controversies in which the agency’s scientific principles appeared to be overridden by political interests, including those of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The FDA commissioner, as the leader of an agency that regulates billions of dollars in consumer goods and medicines, is often required to juggle competing priorities that straddle science and politics. Makary faced a unique challenge in balancing calls by Trump and other Republicans to cut red tape at the FDA, while also tending to Kennedy’s interest in scrutinizing of the safety vaccines, drugs and food additives. Virtually all of FDA’s senior career officials resigned, retired or were forced out in the first year of the second-term Trump administration, leading to a steady stream of leaks and negative stories in the media cataloging low morale, dysfunction and frustration among staff. Makary’s handpicked deputy, Dr. Vinay Prasad, was pushed out of the agency twice in less than a year for running afoul of specialty drugmakers and groups for patients with rare diseases. Makary appeared poised to weather the controversy, despite an ongoing pressure campaign calling on Trump to fire him. Recent months brought fresh criticisms fro