Marty Makary Reportedly Resigns as FDA Commissioner
While there’s no official announcement from the federal government, several media are reporting that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned this morning after just over 13 months on the job.
All the reports say he’s been under pressure from several directions, including President Trump himself, in the past month. Rumors began to swirl on Friday (May 8) that he was about to be fired by Trump. After publicly clashing with lawmakers a month ago, he was scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
The reports say Kyle Diamantas, a deputy commissioner and head of the FDA’s Human Foods Program, has been named acting commissioner.
With Robert Kennedy such a strong personality as secretary of Health & Human Services, Makary’s role as FDA commissioner has been muted, but he joined Kennedy in fighting vaccine recommendations, rewriting the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and in trying to remove long-contested ingredients from the food supply, particularly the six petroleum-based color additives.
According to several reports, the final straw was his opposition to vaping in general and to this month’s approval, at the insistence of Trump, of two fruit-flavored vapes, which Makary thought would be attractive to children.
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.