Leerink analysts warned that Kennedy’s remarks to FDA staff would likely be a negative for the biotech industry.
Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the FDA campus on Friday to tour its facilities and meet its employees—and as per several media reports, he took the opportunity to blast the agency and its staff, accusing them of being a “sock puppet” to the pharma industry.
“All of us are subjected to those gravities of agency capture,” Kennedy told FDA staff in a speech, as per reporting from Politico. He urged the agency’s employees to be “conscious of that gravity because it’s going to be pulling you every single day of your career. We want to break away from this so we can make our kids healthy.” Many staffers were discouraged by Kennedy’s remarks and some reportedly walked out.
In a note to investors on Saturday, analysts at Leerink Partners called Kennedy’s remarks “concerning,” adding that these statements are likely to be “negative for biopharma investor perception.”
Kennedy’s FDA visit on Friday was billed as a welcome to new FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who was approved by the Senate late last month. Kennedy was scheduled to tour several facilities, including laboratories at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health and the Home as a Health Care Hub, which focuses on the development of medical technologies for home use.
At some point during his speech, the Secretary talked about the Deep State. “The Deep State is real,” Kennedy told his audience, according to Politico. “And it’s not … just George Soros and Bill Gates and a bunch of nefarious individuals sitting together in a room and plotting the … destruction of humanity.”
Kennedy also talked about the rise of chronic diseases in the country, pinning the blame on “environmental” factors like unspecified “toxins,” data about which he claims are being suppressed. “The information is out there,” Kennedy said, as per Politico, “but those studies aren’t done because they may offend the financial interests of powerful entities.”
One thing that Kennedy only lightly touched on, according to Politico, is the issue of layoffs. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has gutted the HHS, putting some 10,000 jobs on the chopping block. In the FDA, this effort has affected roughly 3,500 employees.
Aside from the massive layoffs, the FDA has also lost several key senior leaders in recent months, most notable of whom is Peter Marks, former chief of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Marks, a known supporter of vaccines and regulatory flexibility, said in his resignation letter that “it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
