Vinay Prasad ousted vaccine regulator to return to the FDA

Prasad returns to the FDA request, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. “Neither the White House nor the HHS will allow false media to distract critical work that the FDA performs under the Trump administration,” said Nixon.

Prasad will resume the leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said Nixon. It is not known if he will also take up two other roles which he occupied at the agency as director of science and chief doctor.

Prasad suddenly left the agency on July 29 after a conservative reaction in part on its management of security problems with the genique therapy of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. Laura Loomer, an ally of Donald Trump, said that he was not aligned with the president’s agenda and had grown up against his return.

FDA commissioner Marty Makary told journalists on Monday that he was trying to persuade Prasad to return to the agency.

Although Prasad is in his role for less than three months before his evidence, he managed to arouse controversy at the agency. He demanded more studies on coastal vaccines, canceled his own scientific journal staff and adopted a confrontation approach that gave the fodder critics to claim that he could thwart scientific innovation.

Prasad and Makary asked Sarepta last month to stop shipping Sarepta treatment for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, Elenidys, after three deaths related to the company’s gene therapies. Sarepta initially refused, then gave in, leading to an outcry that the agency had exceeded.

The actions of biotechnological companies have climbed on the news of the agency’s departure from Prasad. His return was reported earlier by Endpoints News.