The United States Food and Drug Administration has named, Dr. Vinay Prasad, to be the next head of the center responsible for regulating vaccines and gene therapies.
On Tuesday, the FDA commissioner announced the hematologist/oncologist, as his pick to lead the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in a post on social media.
“I’m proud to welcome Dr. Vinay Prasad, MD, MPH, as the new head of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research,” Makary wrote.
Prasad will replace Dr. Peter Marks, who resigned from his post in late March amid reports indicating that he was pressured to leave.
In his resignation letter, Marks wrote that he felt the Department of Health and Human Services under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was “undermining” the public’s confidence in vaccines, calling it “an assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health.”
“Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines that have met the high standards for quality, safety, and effectiveness that have been in place for decades at FDA is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security,” Marks wrote.
Prasad, who own laboratory, is currently a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics within the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as a practicing hematologist/oncologist at San Francisco General Hospital.
