Christina Jewett, The New York Times, May 12, 2026
Dr. Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, resigned on Tuesday after weeks of pressure and rumors that President Trump was planning to fire him.
Dr. Makary ultimately left over concerns about the administration’s decision to authorize fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, an action he opposed, according to four people familiar with the matter. Dr. Makary told those close to him that he could not in good conscience approve flavored vapes, given their appeal to young people, and would not do something he did not believe in.
His departure caps a tumultuous run at the helm of an agency that regulates medical treatments, vaccines and much of the U.S. food supply. Dr. Makary came to the F.D.A. as a reformer, instituting so many new initiatives that he became known — and sometimes mocked — for his white board on wheels, festooned with Post-it notes lining up announcements that he promoted on frequent television appearances.
But his efforts at times put him at odds with the powerful food, tobacco and pharmaceutical industries. In the process, he made a number of enemies in Washington and on Wall Street, including some biotech leaders, abortion foes, tobacco executives and eventually some members of the administration.
He also drew criticism from public health leaders who viewed him as pandering to anti-vaccine activists with the release of an unsupported memo claiming that there were deaths related to Covid vaccines. Criticism flared again when he allowed the renewed use of unproven peptides, or injectable compounds with uncertain effects, a policy favored by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“He has offended almost everyone involved in F.D.A. issues, which is not easy to do,” said Diana Zuckerman, the president of the National Center for Health Research, which weighs in frequently on F.D.A. decisions. “But it would still be a disaster if he is replaced by someone who appeals primarily to tobacco companies, anti-abortion activists” and pharmaceutical lobbyists, she added.
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Dr. Makary also faced repeated calls for his firing from abortion foes who accused him of dragging out the timetable for a study of the safety of mifepristone, an abortion drug, viewing the exercise as one that could support their efforts to restrict the drug’s distribution.
Dr. Makary, who was a Johns Hopkins University cancer surgeon and health policy researcher before entering government, attempted to play to Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement, going as far as sitting in a frigid plunge pool with the wellness influencer and biohacker Gary Brecka. He also led popular efforts to authorize natural food dyes and change how people talked about hormone replacement therapy for women.
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Early on, Dr. Makary and Dr. Vinay Prasad — his handpicked director of gene therapies, stem cell treatments and vaccines — drew scrutiny when they restricted the criteria for prescribing Covid vaccines to people older than 65 or with a list of health concerns.
Dr. Prasad resigned under pressure last summer after he was targeted by the right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, in part over his crackdown on a drug company tied to several patient deaths. Dr. Prasad was later brought back, but left the agency again in recent weeks.
Dr. Prasad and his counterpart in the agency’s drug division rejected a number of new drugs for rare diseases, citing flaws in a company’s research supporting an approval. As Dr. Makary went on television to defend the rejections, frustrated biotech leaders and investors vented to the White House and Mr. Kennedy’s office.
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Dr. Makary ultimately became a champion for the agency’s staff, fighting to get authorization to hire about 3,000 employees. The process of recruiting and hiring has moved slowly, though, leaving staff members at the agency and those who watch it concerned about its future.
Nathan Cortez, a Southern Methodist University law professor who studies the F.D.A., said that finding a permanent replacement could be a major challenge.
Read the full article in The New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/us/politics/trump-fires-fda-commissioner-makary.html