Vaccine and immunotherapy companies fell in the New York afternoon stock market session after FDA Commissioner Marty Makary named Vinay Prasad as the next director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Several media outlets cited an internal email sent to staff by Makary earlier today announcing Prasad’s new position as head of the FDA’s Division of Biologics, a move that comes weeks after former Biologics Division chief Peter Marks unexpectedly resigned.
STAT News’ Adam Feuerstein shared a screenshot of Makary’s email about Xi.
Makary told FDA staff that Prasad has published more than 500 academic articles and “conducted extensive research in the field of oncology and presented at hundreds of scientific and medical conferences,” adding, “He is also the author of ‘Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm Cancer Patients’ and ‘Ending Medical Turnover: Improving Outcomes, Saving Lives.’”
Prasad has been a sharp critic of the Covid-19 vaccine for children, as well as Marks, as the Daily Caller’s Emily Kopp wrote about Xi:
In the markets, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) fell 6.5%. Vaccine stocks Moderna fell 11.5% and Novavax 3%. Gene therapy company Sarepta Therapeutics fell 22%.
“The Street is reacting negatively to the news, given the glow surrounding Prasad and his stance on COVID-19 vaccines, the broader drug approval process, including accelerated approval, and other comments that on the surface seem more anti-industry than friendly,” Bloomberg quoted Jared Holz, a U.S. healthcare analyst at Mizuho Securities, as saying.
For more information on the views and beliefs of the new biology department head, check out Prasad’s YouTube channel:
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