FDA Chief Medical Officer Hilary Marston, M.D., is leaving her position at the agency.
“It has been a true privilege to serve as chief medical officer of the FDA,” Marston, who served as the top medical leader for almost three years, wrote in an April 1 LinkedIn post. “In this role, I’ve had the joy of working with some of the smartest, most dedicated colleagues within my office, throughout the agency and across the U.S. government. I am sad that this chapter is coming to an end and very sorry for others experiencing the same.”
The exit comes amid mass layoffs across federal health agencies, with workers starting to receive termination notices from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 1.
The FDA has not responded to Fierce Biotech’s request for comment regarding the terms of Marston’s departure or if a successor will be selected.
In her role, Marston oversaw the agency’s Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO)—a unit designed to support medical product development and availability, promote patient health and advance innovative research—and served as the primary clinical advisor to the FDA commissioner. She led initiatives that support making effective and safe medical products available to Americans by ensuring timely reviews and promoting rare disease innovation.
Marston has more than a decade of additional government service under her belt. Before leading as CMO, she was a senior advisor on the White House COVID-19 response team, providing oversight for vaccine donations delivered to other countries.
Before that, Marston directed medical biopreparedness and response at the U.S. National Security Council, guiding policy matters related to medical countermeasure development and pandemic preparedness. She also worked at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—where she coordinated outbreak responses to Zika, Ebola and COVID-19.
Her depature comes amid severe cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration over the past two months, which—on top of the deluge of firings—has also seen litigation and mass chaos.
Yesterday, word broke that Vence Bonham Jr., the highest-ranking official at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), was put on administrative leave. Bonham became the NHGRI’s leader about two weeks ago, when longtime director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., was forced to exit after the NIH declined to renew his contract.
A few days prior, Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, filed his resignation, with several publications reporting that Marks was given the choice to either step aside or be pushed aside.
Previously, Trump, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk vowed to dramatically reduce the workforce at federal health agencies in an effort to fundamentally reshape the government.
A Feb. 11 executive order explicitly said that offices touting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are to be prioritized for firings.
Last week, RFK Jr. said the government would cut 3,500 full-time FDA employees and 1,200 NIH workers as part of an overarching move designed to eliminate 10,000 HHS jobs. The new restructuring, paired with early retirements and the administration's previous downsizing efforts, is set to cut down the entire health department’s current size of 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000.
The layoffs are supposed to save $1.8 billion annually, according to HHS.