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STAT+: Ouster of FDA’s Peter Marks alarms a biopharma industry that saw him as an ally
Will Peter Marks' ouster from the FDA change how pharma industry engages with the Trump administration?
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime and visceral critic of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, was nominated by President Trump to be the nation’s health secretary, the head of biotech’s largest trade group issued a statement saying that he had “every confidence” that the industry would “continue to thrive and deliver” on its goals, and looked forward to working closely with the new administration.
Three months later, in February, when the National Institutes of Health announced plans to slash indirect cost payments to universities and other institutions that have received federal grants, the trade group, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, issued no response, even though the work of those universities and other institutions is a critical driver of new drugs and other medical products.
On Saturday, one day after news that the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator had been forced out of his post by Kennedy, who has since been confirmed by the Senate as health secretary, BIO CEO John Crowley released a statement saying that the group was “deeply concerned that the loss of experienced leadership at the FDA will erode scientific standards and broadly impact the development of new, transformative therapies to fight diseases for the American people.”
