By Michael Erman
May 16 (Reuters) – The acting head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s drug center, Tracy Beth Hoeg, was fired on Friday, according to her social media post, and has been replaced by deputy Michael Davis, the FDA’s website shows.
Reuters was first to report Hoeg was expected to leave the FDA on Friday, just days after Commissioner Marty Makary was replaced.
Kyle Diamantas, who had been FDA deputy commissioner for food, replaced Makary, who left after weeks of clashing with top White House and health advisers over a series of decisions that drew criticism regarding drug approvals and other areas.
Davis, the new acting director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, had been the deputy director of CDER for about a year.
CHANGES AT THE FDA
Hoeg’s and Makary’s departures come amid a wider shake-up of the agency, which has lost thousands of people since President Donald Trump took office, through firings and voluntary departures.
Karim Mikhail has been named acting director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, or CBER, the FDA’s website shows. Vinay Prasad left that job last month. Mikhail had been working at the FDA as an adviser.
Lowell Zeta, who had been deputy commissioner and special counsel, was named acting chief of staff. He replaces Jim Traficant, who had been chief of staff and, according to a Department of Health and Human Services official, is staying on in an advisory role.
HOEG’S TENURE AT FDA
Hoeg, who announced her departure via an X post late on Friday, is an epidemiologist and sports physician who cast doubt on COVID vaccines during the pandemic.
She helped lead the effort to overhaul the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule by reducing the number of recommended shots from 17 to 11 in January. The move has been put on hold by a U.S. court.
As part of a move to tighten control on the health agency, the White House this year named Chris Klomp as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s No. 2. He has since helped bring in new nominees for top health positions, such as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Surgeon General.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru, Michael Erman in New York and Yasmeen Abutaleb in Washington DC, Editing by Louise Heavens, Caroline Humer, Rod Nickel)
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