Vinay Prasad leaves FDA again amid dispute over Huntington’s disease treatment

Vinay Prasad, the US Food and Drug Administration chief medical and scientific officer, will leave the agency for the second time, amid a series of disputes with pharmaceutical companies.FDA commissioner Marty Makary reportedly said Prasad will depart in April, in an email to staff on 6 March,1 adding that he would return to his previous role at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics.Prasad, who was also director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, resigned once before in July 2025—after only three months in the job—amid controversy over suspending a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.2However, he was reinstated two weeks later.3 His latest departure comes amid another set of public disputes between the FDA and pharmaceutical companies.In the week Prasad’s departure was announced the FDA had come under fire in another public row with the company UniQure over a…