Top Trump administration officials have taken issue with Marty Makary’s management style, pointing to infighting between his appointees and the difficulty to get a hold of the FDA commissioner.
There appears to be growing frustration about FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s management style within the highest levels of the Trump administration.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, who were granted anonymity, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that government officials including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have discussed limiting Makary’s role at the FDA. Kennedy even considered naming another leader to take charge of the regulator, while keeping Makary on mainly as a figurehead.
In particular, some of these leaders took issue with infighting among Makary’s appointed directors. These concerns have reached as high as the White House, the WSJ reported. But Makary still seems to have Kennedy’s support, wanting Makary to do better at his post, the sources said.
“The Secretary has full trust and confidence in Dr. Makary to lead the FDA,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told the WSJ.
According to the WSJ’s sources, the high-level concerns about Makary’s management were triggered by the resignation of George Tidmarsh from his post as director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research after a probe began into “serious concerns about his personal conduct.”
Following his exit, Tidmarsh told The New York Times that his stay at the FDA—which lasted just over three months after his appointment in late July—had been toxic. He largely attributed this to Vinay Prasad, his counterpart at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Prasad was also given the boot in late July but was reinstated 10 days later.
Last week, Richard Pazdur, who has been with the FDA for nearly three decades and is currently the director of its FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, replaced Tidmarsh.
Aside from the staffing problem, several HHS officials also complained to Kennedy that Makary was difficult to reach, often avoiding emails and meetings with some of his own directors.
For his part, Makary bristled at Kennedy’s figurehead suggestion, prompting the other officials to hold off on advocating for large leadership changes at the FDA. Makary will have the opportunity to improve his management style, according to the sources, who added that the FDA chief also expressed frustration at what he considers the Health Department’s disorganization.
In a separate statement to the WSJ, a spokesperson for the White House said that Trump has “total confidence” in the HHS and FDA, noting that “Commissioner Makary’s leadership has smashed a broken status quo and overseen one historic MAHA initiative after another.”
