Dr. Vinay Prasad, the controversial critic of the US Food and Drug Administration who took a top role at the regulatory agency in May, has resigned less than three months into the job.
“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 spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services told CNN on Tuesday.
Prasad, a hematologist oncologist, was named head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in early May, giving him purview over vaccines and biologic medicines. He was subsequently also given the role of FDA chief medical and scientific officer. Like a number of Trump administration health appointees, Prasad had been a harsh critic of the government’s response and vaccine policies during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prasad’s departure came amid fresh pressure from the White House for him to resign, according to a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to describe the internal dynamics, and followed days of criticism from Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist with extraordinary access to President Donald Trump.
Loomer had taken shots at him on her website and on social media, attacking him publicly for days as a “progressive leftist saboteur” who was “undermining President Trump’s FDA.”
