Policy
Adam Urato, who is currently a vaccine advisor to the CDC, is closely associated with acting CDER director Tracy Beth Høeg and is a fellow skeptic of the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors during pregnancy.
One of the two new members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines before the Texas Senate in 2021.
Aside from creating a toxic work environment, CBER Director Vinay Prasad has also been accused of berating his staff and retaliating against reviewers who questioned his decisions.
Without naming a specific product, Commissioner Marty Makary referred to an investigational therapy, delivered surgically into the brain, that the FDA was “pressured” to approve even after finding no clinical benefit to patients.
Last week, the FDA made its one pivotal trial policy official, sparking myriad questions from industry leaders, including around specific evidence required for the single study and why it hasn’t been implemented across all therapeutic areas before now.
The rescheduling of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices comes amid fresh leadership upheaval at the CDC as NIH director Jay Bhattacharya replaces Jim O’Neill as acting head of the agency.
In August last year, the Health Department cut around $500 million in mRNA research funding, with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying the agency would instead divert the money “toward safer, broader vaccine platforms.”
Tracy Beth Høeg addressed FDA staffers for the first time in her role as the fifth CDER chief under President Donald Trump, announcing inquiries into the use of SSRIs in pregnancy and RSV antibodies in infants despite well-documented safety of these treatments.
Drug sponsors should nevertheless bolster their application with “confirmative evidence,” chief regulators Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad said on Wednesday, including mechanistic data or findings from related indications or animal models.
FDA vouchers are normally a coveted prize for biopharma companies, but a surprise rejection for Disc Medicine’s rare disease drug has biopharma reconsidering.
PRESS RELEASES