Matthew Herper, STAT News:
Oh, it’s very, very broad.
I mean, in the CDC, we’re talking tobacco control, injury prevention, workplace safety, birth defects, reproductive health, basically everything that is not infectious disease. And at the FDA, the cuts are, I think, a lot deeper than a lot of people expected.
People who review new medical products, the people who actually look at a new drug or device, mostly seem to have been safe, but a lot of expertise. Late last week before the layoffs, the top vaccine official, also in charge of gene therapy and the blood supply was removed. Today, a director of the Office of New Drugs and the head of the Tobacco Center were removed.
The former — several former FDA commissioners expressed concern, including Scott Gottlieb, who was FDA commissioner under the Trump administration, worrying about a return to delays in drug approvals. And Robert Califf saying that the FDA as we know it is finished with most of the leaders, with institutional knowledge and deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed.