MAY 12, 2026
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary Resigns Under Pressure from Pro-Life Groups and Industry
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned on Tuesday, according to multiple reports citing White House and agency sources. Kyle Diamantis, the FDA's deputy commissioner for food, is expected to serve as acting commissioner. The resignation came one day before Makary was scheduled to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday to defend the agency's 2027 budget proposal.
Marty Makary, a former Johns Hopkins University professor of surgery, was confirmed as FDA Commissioner under President Donald Trump and is now the third Senate-confirmed HHS official to leave the department during Trump's second term. A White House official told Fox News Digital that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed for Makary's resignation, and that the departure relates to "process at the FDA" rather than any single issue, with "no bad blood" between Trump and Makary.
Pressure on Makary had been building from two directions simultaneously. Anti-abortion groups grew frustrated that the FDA, under his leadership, did not reinstate in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion medication mifepristone — a rule the Biden administration removed in 2023 — and that the agency approved a new generic version of the drug in October 2025. Live Action president Lila Rose told Fox News Digital that "President Trump and HHS Secretary Kennedy must end this now," and a Trump administration official separately described Makary's handling of pro-life concerns as conveying that their "concerns are an afterthought."
Pharmaceutical industry representatives also applied pressure, according to the Washington Examiner, arguing that conflicts over the agency's approval processes had created a "culture of unpredictability." A focal point was Makary's selection of Dr. Vinay Prasad to lead the agency's vaccines and gene therapies division. Prasad, who left the agency on Thursday, drew industry criticism after declining to approve Moderna's new flu vaccine, even though the company said it had followed testing guidelines established during the Biden administration.