5 lessons from Vinay Prasad’s turbulent tenure at the FDA

Meals and Drug Administration official Vinay Prasad self-destructed final week. The FDA introduced Friday night that he would step down subsequent month after a sequence of controversial selections about vaccines and gene therapies. His distinctive means to draw criticism — even when his bosses, together with the president, wished him to maintain his head low — did him in. 

Prasad’s defenders will current his arc as that of a heroic determine falling as a result of he stood by his ideas, and argue that his departure is a win for Massive Pharma as a result of it means the business is not going to be held to the excessive requirements that he set. That’s not so. He may very well be impulsive and careless, and did extra hurt to the FDA than good.

Credit score the place credit score is due: Prasad is true that the FDA, within the case of uncommon illness therapies, wanted to demand clearer proof earlier than issuing approvals. The paradox is that when it got here to battles over medical information, he pulled out a bazooka when he wanted a scalpel.