HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s visit to the FDA Friday was supposed to introduce him as a trusted leader to agency employees. It did anything but. Over the course of 40 minutes, Kennedy, in largely off-the-cuff remarks, asserted that the "Deep State" is real, referenced past CIA experiments on human mind control and accused the employees he was speaking to of becoming a "sock puppet" of the industries they regulate.
Peter Marks, the FDA official pressured to resign over his disagreements with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., warned in an interview that Kennedy's tenure at the HHS has been "very scary" so far. In his resignation letter, Marks said he had been "willing" to work to address Kennedy's "concerns" about vaccine transparency and safety but determined Kennedy only wanted "subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."
A day after deep FDA cuts rocked their world, drug and med tech companies faced another potentially big hit when President Trump announced a baseline 10% tariff on U.S. imports.
President Donald Trump's 25% trade tariffs on Canadian pharmaceuticals are expected to increase costs in the United States and strain drug supply chains, according to an analysis published this week in JAMA.
Around 3,500 employees are on the chopping block at the FDA, but they don't yet know who they are. The Health and Human Services Department on Thursday announced a sweeping plan to cut 10,000 jobs and consolidate operations across its sub-agencies. FDA drug, medical device, or food reviewers and inspectors will not be among those fired, according to an HHS fact sheet.
Walgreens is set to close 500 stores in 33 states as part of the drugstore chain's plans to shutter 1,200 locations in the coming years as major retailers across the U.S. face a crisis.