WASHINGTON — Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary recounted his agency’s achievements and acknowledged a “challenging start” to his tenure in a speech to staff on Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday marked one year since the Trump administration laid off 10,000 people at the Health and Human Services Department, including 3,500 FDA employees. That day, April 1, was also Makary’s first as commissioner. It was a distressing start for staff, who weeks later listened to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. call them sock puppets of the pharmaceutical industry.
“We had some difficulty here due to some actions just before I came into office,” Makary said, according to a recording obtained by STAT. “That’s why ensuring a good workplace culture has been something very important to me.”
