Trump’s HHS pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is an anti-vaccine campaigner who has previously said that he plans to gut the FDA on allegations of corruption and reduce the NIH’s headcount.
President-elect Donald Trump announced in a social media post on Thursday that he will appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—a controversial pick that is expected to have far-reaching implications for biotech and pharma.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote in his post on Truth Social, a social media platform owned by his Trump Media & Technology Group. “Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Kennedy has since accepted Trump’s offer, noting on X that he is “committed” to Trump’s health agenda and that he is looking forward to “free[ing] the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture.”
“Together, we will clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science,” Kennedy added.
Kennedy’s appointment to the position will need to be confirmed by the Senate, however, and as the next Senate will have 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats and the appointment is controversial, confirmation is not guaranteed. Jefferies analyst Michael Yee notes that “Trump is expected to try to push RFK and Gaetz (AG nominee) through Congress via ‘recess appointment’ which allows to bypass Senate approval - although also requires House support for prolonged recess.” Recess appointments are also temporary.
The former presidential candidate—who was previously a Democrat but ran Independent before dropping out and backing Trump’s campaign—is a well-known anti-vaccine advocate. Kennedy founded the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, whose mission is to end childhood health epidemics “by eliminating toxic exposure.”
In practice, Children’s Health Defense is what the Associated Press in 2021 called an “anti-vaccine juggernaut” that saw a massive spike in influence during the COVID-19 when it sowed distrust against life-saving immunizations and treatments. On its website, Children’s Health Defense draws links between vaccination and the rising incidence of chronic health conditions in children—including asthma, autism, developmental delays and developmental delays, despite this relationship having been disproven by the literature.
Kennedy has previously maintained that he is not anti-vaccine and insisted that he has no plans to take away vaccines. Still, Yee wrote in a Thursday note that “the point is around sentiment, stance, and perspective - that impacts biotech investors’ view of how FDA and other HHS issues will evolve,” particularly regarding accelerating drug development and approvals.
These concerns are especially pertinent as Kennedy has previously said that he planned on reducing the FDA’s headcount and funding, both of which would directly impact biopharma.
He also said recently that he intends to terminate and replace 600 staff of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds much of the early research that underlies drug development. In a September opinion article for the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy called for more attention to chronic disease, and for devoting “half of research budgets from the NIH toward preventive, alternative and holistic approaches to health,” among other policy proposals.
Faced with the prospect of a hamstrung agency, current Commissioner Robert Calif on Tuesday said that altering the FDA’s current operations could hurt its productivity. “I’m biased, but I feel like the FDA is at peak performance right now,” Calif said, as reported by STAT News, adding that despite some shortcomings, FDA employees are “good people” who are “hardworking” and who “want what’s best fro the American public.”
