Washington– A Food and Drug Administration Co-responsible for examining the safety of antidepressants, COVID-19 vaccines and And other widely used treatments She was removed from her role leading the agency’s drug program.
Dr. Tracy Beth Hoag Dr. Mike Davis, who had been serving as deputy director, will be replaced as director of the FDA’s Center for Drugs, according to an email sent to agency staff on Friday and obtained by The Associated Press.
Hough said in a social media post late Friday that she had been “fired” from the agency, adding: “I have learned a lot and am leaving with no regrets.”
Hog departure It is the latest in an ongoing shake-up at the powerful regulatory agency. FDA Commissioner Marty McCurry He resigned earlier in the week, and Dr. Vinay PrasadThe agency’s vaccine and biotechnology head resigned last month after intense criticism from drugmakers, patients and investors.
The agency also announced on Friday that Karim Mikhail will assume the duties of director of the agency’s vaccine center. Michael, a longtime pharmaceutical executive, was hired by Macquarie last spring.
McCurry’s removal from his position at the helm of the US Food and Drug Administration came after weeks of complaints from political allies of President Donald Trump, including… Anti-abortion groups and Vaping lobbieswho are frustrated with the agency’s direction.
Hogg, who is closely associated with McCurry and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been leading the FDA’s drug program since December, the latest official to briefly hold the position amid a crisis. The revolving door of FDA leadership changes.
Hogg’s rapid rise through the agency was engineered by McCary, who quickly promoted her from working as his special assistant to overseeing the agency’s largest position, responsible for regulating most prescription and over-the-counter drugs in the United States.
FDA center directors are typically career agency scientists with decades of experience. Hough had no previous government or administrative experience.
Since arriving at the FDA last March, Hogg has led investigations into the safety of the injection Respiratory syncytial virus medications for children, Antidepressants And COVID-19 vaccinations.
These inquiries reflected Hogg’s long-standing interests and concerns before joining government.
Hough, a sports medicine physician and public health scientist, first gained attention during the pandemic as a critic of mask mandates, school closures, vaccine mandates and other government actions. She co-wrote papers with other medical violators who joined the Trump administration, including McCurry and Prasad.
Like McCurry and Prasad, Hogg has also frequently expressed her opinions in blog posts and podcasts, including an article titled “The Strange Vaccine.” The podcast discussed a number of discredited ideas, including that mRNA vaccines may contain harmful DNA contaminants.
Hoge, a Danish-American citizen, has been instrumental in the Trump administration’s recent efforts Drop the number of federally recommended shots for childrenincluding those for influenza and hepatitis B at birth. Those were the changes Temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Boston, although the administration plans to appeal the decision.
At the FDA, Hoge led a “preliminary analysis” of vaccine infections that linked COVID-19 shots to 10 reported deaths among children — without providing supporting evidence. The findings were discussed in an internal memo Prasad sent to employees last November, although the FDA has not formally announced the results or explained how they were developed.
Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have previously concluded that serious side effects from vaccines are extremely rare.
Most recently, Hogg participated in the agency’s review of a formal petition to add bold new warnings to antidepressant medications about unproven pregnancy risks, including fetal abnormalities that can lead to autism and other disorders.
In March, it tried to appoint the petition’s author to serve as a senior adviser at the Food and Drug Administration, according to people familiar with the situation. The matter raised concerns among some agency employees because Hogg repeatedly referred to the person as a friend, according to the people who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential FDA matters.
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