FDA official returns to agency after Loomer-led ouster

(CNN) — Dr. Vinay Prasad, a controversial critic of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who took a top role at the regulatory agency in May, has returned to his job weeks after resigning amid pressure from the White House and right-wing activist Laura Loomer.

“At the FDA’s request, Dr. Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,” said Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon in a statement to CNN on Saturday.

Nixon did not respond to CNN’s inquiry about whether Prasad will also return to his role as FDA chief medical and scientific officer.

In late July, Prasad, a hematologist oncologist, said he was resigning because he “did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA” and had “decided to return to California and spend more time with his family.”

Prasad’s departure came amid fresh pressure from the White House for him to resign, according to a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to describe the internal dynamics, and followed days of criticism from Loomer, who has extraordinary access to President Donald Trump.

Loomer had taken shots at Prasad on her website and on social media, attacking him publicly for days as a “progressive leftist saboteur” who was “undermining President Trump’s FDA.”

Loomer focused on Prasad’s previous social media posts and podcast episodes, where she said he aligned himself politically with liberal politicians and expressed “disdain” for Trump. Her posts were followed by others from figures including former US Sen. Rick Santorum, who called Prasad “the man destroying @POTUS legacy for helping patients,” and a Wall Street Journal opinion piece headlined, “Vinay Prasad Is a Bernie Sanders Acolyte in MAHA Drag.”

Prasad had been a vocal critic of some of the agency’s drug approvals, as well as the government’s response and vaccine policies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Loomer, reacting to the news of Prasad’s return in a Saturday post on X, called it an “egregious personnel decision” and said she planned to “(ramp) up my exposes of officials within HHS and FDA” in the coming weeks.

Prasad also drew criticism from former officials and vaccine experts after internal memos from May revealed that he overrode FDA scientists on recommendations for two new versions of Covid-19 vaccines. The then-CBER director rebuked recommendations for broad use of the shots; the FDA eventually approved the vaccines for use in older and immunocompromised people but did not advise them for younger Americans who don’t have underlying conditions.

CNN’s Meg Tirrell, Sarah Owermohle, and Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.

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