The rumor mill was correct: Marty Makary resigned as head of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday after weeks of speculation that his days were numbered, reports Politico. The breaking point, three people familiar with the matter tell the New York Times, was the administration's move to greenlight fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, a policy Makary opposed. Kyle Diamantas, the FDA's top food regulator, will be acting commissioner.
Makary arrived as a self-styled reformer, rolling out so many initiatives that his rolling whiteboard of color-coded plans became a Washington curiosity, notes the Times. But his approach left him battling powerful interests in food, tobacco, and pharma—as well as critics in public health, who accused him of catering to vaccine skeptics with an unsubstantiated memo tying Covid shots to deaths and of reviving the use of unproven peptide injections. "He has offended almost everyone involved in FDA issues," says Diana Zuckerman of the National Center for Health Research. That includes anti-abortion activists.
- The AP finds that Makary "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 Washington Post adds this context: "The ouster of Makary after more than a year in office is the latest shake-up at the Department of Health and Human Services, with some deputies selected by Kennedy being swapped out for more conventional choices."
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