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Dr. Vinay Prasad, a top Food and Drug Administration official, stepped down from his position on Tuesday after being accused by right-wing activist Laura Loomer of being a “progressive, left-wing” figure seeking to sabotage the Trump administration.
Prasad was appointed by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in May to be director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. He was also appointed last month to be the agency’s chief medical and science officer.
Despite garnering conservatives’ support over matters such as his skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines and criticism of pandemic-era mask mandates, Prasad recently drew outrage from factions of the Republican Party, including Loomer, who disagreed with his approach to approving gene therapies for rare diseases and accused him of holding liberal views.
Amid the controversy, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed this week that Prasad stepped down as the FDA’s top vaccine and gene therapy regulator and chief medical and scientific officer.
“Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family,” a DHS spokesperson said of Prasad, who is also a hematologist-oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “We thank him for his service and the many important reforms he was able to achieve in his time at the FDA.”
