The circus was performing at the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, apparently. The FDA has hired Vinay Prasad to oversee the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research\u2014less than two weeks after he left that same role.<\/p>\n
Endpoints News was the first to report<\/a> Prasad\u2019s rehiring on Saturday. He was initially reportedly fired<\/a> by President Donald Trump himself, following growing pressure from Laura Loomer and other conservative voices who criticized him\u00a0over the agency\u2019s regulation of a gene therapy developed by Sarepta Therapeutics.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the FDA\u2019s request, Dr. Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,\u201d Andrew Nixon, communications officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, told Gizmodo.<\/p>\n Prasad is a hematologist-oncologist and epidemiologist formerly based at the University of California-San Francisco. He has also regularly written editorials, articles, and studies critical of the medical establishment and public health agencies like the FDA. While some of his critiques have enjoyed support from many in the public health field, such as calling for a stricter standard<\/a> when approving new therapies, others have been more controversial<\/a>. The often-combative Prasad has criticized the government\u2019s initial response to covid-19 as too restrictive, argued that many people didn\u2019t need the covid-19 vaccine, including children, and downplayed the health impacts of long covid, to name a few examples<\/a>.<\/p>\n FDA Commissioner Marty Makary first hired Prasad to head CBER in early May. He was additionally named the FDA\u2019s chief medical and scientific officer. But it didn\u2019t take long for Prasad to collect more enemies. Under his reign, the FDA butted heads with Sarepta Therapeutics over its Elevidys gene therapy treatment\u00a0for the rare and life-shortening condition Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).<\/p>\n Following the deaths of three patients linked to the drug, the FDA ordered Sarepta in mid-July to pause all shipments of the therapy until further notice. But 10 days later, the agency reversed course<\/a> and recommended the drug to patients capable of walking. Days after that, Prasad left the FDA. Though the FDA stated<\/a> officially that Prasad left of his own volition to \u201cspend more time with his family,\u201d Politico soon reported that Trump had pushed<\/a> for Prasad\u2019s firing over the objections of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Makary.<\/p>\n Prior to Trump\u2019s intervention, several right-wing influencers\u2014most notably Laura Loomer\u2014called<\/a> for<\/a> Prasad\u2019s head over his management of the Sarepta situation. Loomer has also maligned<\/a> Prasad as a \u201cprogressive marxist\u201d and saboteur to Trump and the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d agenda, pointing out that he had once insulted<\/a> Trump.<\/p>\n