FDA commissioner resignation opens opportunity for refocus on science over politics

After a somewhat tumultuous tenure, FDA commissioner Marty Makary is stepping down. While Dr. Makary made his mission to accelerate drug approval and bring a new standard of evidence to the FDA, he also tried to align with the Make America Healthy Again movement and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s ideas of healthcare. CEI Health Policy Fellow Jeremy Nighohossian believes the upshot was several FDA decisions under his tenure that seemed more political than scientific:

“Drug development is accelerating, technology and AI are facilitating a faster pace of discovery, and public health has the potential for great gains as a result. But under Dr. Makary’s FDA, too many new treatments were subjected to novel and unclear standards that slowed down medicine and healthcare. The next FDA commissioner should prioritize speed and efficacy and resist blocking or slowing down certain types of treatment technologies such as mRNA vaccines due to political pressures.”