President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration vowed Thursday to review the Trump administration’s sweeping job cuts at the agency. “I have not been involved in any of the decisions regarding any of the personnel changes recently, but if confirmed, you have my commitment that I'll do an assessment,” said Martin Makary during his appearance before the Senate, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday morning. “I just want to make sure that you're the one doing that assessment,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. As FDA commissioner, Makary would oversee a roughly $7 billion federal agency partly funded by user fees paid by the pharmaceutical industry, the tobacco industry and by the medical device industry, among others. The agency oversees the safety of vaccines, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, food and infant formula. Collins, one of several senators to question Makary about the job cuts, expressed concerns about the large-scale firings of probationary employees at the FDA, underscoring that about half of the FDA’s employees are funded by user fees and not appropriated funds. Makary, an author and a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, also fielded questions about the FDA’s regulation of the abortion pill mifepristone during his appearance before the panel. He was also asked whether he planned to reschedule a canceled vaccine advisory committee meeting to select the next flu vaccine. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the committee, asked Makary if he would commit to reinstating the in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone that were rolled back in 2023 under the Biden administration. Makary repeatedly said that he has no “preconceived plans” to change the FDA’s regulations on the drug. He said that per the FDA’s risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, the agency is required to continually collect safety data on the drug. “I do plan to follow the law and the regulation of the REMS [risk evaluation and mitigation strategies] to look at ongoing data,” Makary said. “It could be that there could be a drug-drug interaction that we could identify.” Makary was also pressed on whether he would reinstate the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee’s meeting to select which flu strain to target in the next fall and winter flu season. Makary said he would review the meeting’s cancellation. But he wouldn’t commit to rescheduling it. He said the vaccine committee has historically made the same recommendation as the World Health Organization’s Global Influenza Program. He argued the flu vaccine meeting cancellation was different from when the FDA decided not to convene its advisory committee in 2022 to recommend a COVID-19 booster dose for kids ages 12 to 15, a decision he criticized at the time. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., asked Makary to respond to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s suggestion that cod liver oil can treat measles, which is sweeping through areas of Texas and New Mexico. He also asked Makary to respond to Kennedy’s statements this past weekend that the decision to get vaccinated is “personal.” Makary said that vitamin A, which is found in cod liver oil, can be helpful for children with measles who have a certain deficiency. But he defended the use of vaccines for children with measles. “Senator, vaccines save lives, and I do believe that any child who dies on a vaccine-preventable illness is a tragedy in the modern era,” Makary said. The Senate HELP committee is scheduled to vote on Makary’s nomination — as well the nomination of National Institutes of Health director pick Jay Bhattacharya — on Thursday, March 13.
