The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday Vinay Prasad will serve as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which oversees vaccine and gene therapy regulation for the FDA.
Prasad remains a vocal critic of mask mandates and fast-tracked COVID boosters that became controversial issues during pandemic lockdowns.
He has also criticized the FDA's approach to pharmaceutical approvals, including with published papers that examine the efficacy of unproven cancer treatments.
"If you’re talking about FDA 2024, I think they’d probably be better off as a result of not having the FDA," he said last year, during an interview with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Prasad replaces Dr. Peter Marks, who was forced to resign from his post after he sought to keep Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from accessing vaccine safety databases. Marks told The Associated Press he feared Kennedy's team would overwrite or erase the data.
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Prasad, who teaches at the University of California San Francisco, has formal training in the study of cancer and blood disorders.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary confirmed Prasad's appointment on Tuesday.
"With 500+ peer-reviewed publications and two books, Dr. Prasad brings the kind of scientific rigor, independence, and transparency we need at CBER—a significant step forward," Makary wrote.
