{"id":2571,"date":"2026-03-09T00:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/2571\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T00:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:06:10","slug":"5-lessons-from-vinay-prasads-turbulent-tenure-at-the-fda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/2571\/","title":{"rendered":"5 lessons from Vinay Prasad&#8217;s turbulent tenure at the FDA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Food and Drug Administration official Vinay Prasad self-destructed last week. The FDA announced Friday evening that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/03\/06\/fda-vinay-prasad-controversial-cber-director-leaving\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he would step down next month<\/a> after a series of controversial decisions about vaccines and gene therapies. His unique ability to attract criticism \u2014 even when his bosses, including the president, wanted him to keep his head low \u2014 did him in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prasad\u2019s defenders will present his arc as that of a heroic figure falling because he stood by his principles, and argue that his departure is a win for Big Pharma because it means the industry will not be held to the high standards that he set. That is not so. He could be impulsive and careless, and did more harm to the FDA than good.<\/p>\n<p>Credit where credit is due: Prasad is right that the FDA, in the case of rare disease treatments, needed to demand clearer evidence before issuing approvals. The paradox is that when it came to battles over clinical data, he pulled out a bazooka when he needed a scalpel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Food and Drug Administration official Vinay Prasad self-destructed last week. The FDA announced Friday evening that he would&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1433,2112,2113,8,9,1435,2400,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-2571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-biotechnology","9":"tag-drug-development","10":"tag-fda","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pharmaceuticals","14":"tag-stat","15":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116196303375820987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}