Mass layoffs of FDA staff, particularly in the food, medical device, and tobacco product divisions happened over this past weekend. Photo credit: Anna Schvets, Pexels
Over the past weekend, the current US administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), resulting in the dismissal of recently hired employees responsible for reviewing food ingredients, medical devices, and other products.
On Saturday evening, probationary FDA employees were notified that their positions had been cut, according to three staff members who spoke anonymously to The Associated Press. While the exact number of layoffs remains unclear, the cuts primarily affected staff in the agency’s food, medical device, and tobacco product divisions, which oversee e-cigarettes. It is uncertain whether drug review personnel were impacted.
The layoffs are part of a broader plan by the US Department of Health and Human Services, which announced on Friday that 5,200 probationary employees across its agencies—including the FDA, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—would be let go.
At CDC, nearly 1,300 employees were expected to be affected, though by early Sunday, about 700 had received termination notices.
Mitch Zeller, former FDA director for tobacco, said the firings are a way to “demoralize and undermine the spirit of the federal workforce.”
“The combined effect of what they’re trying to do is going to destroy the ability to recruit and retain talent,” Zeller said.