The pharma industry faces many risks from a depleted US Food and Drug Administration workforce, but even after the Trump administration issued an executive order calling for reductions-in-force across federal agencies, key industry voices have offered little push-back.
‘This Is Not Good For Business’: Trump’s Workforce Shakeups Could Harm Industry
Experts worry new restrictions on remote work, plans to eliminate certain employees’ job protections and workforce cuts will make the FDA a less attractive employer and hurt pharma’s efforts to get innovative medicines to patients.

More from US FDA
In his resignation letter, the CBER director said he was willing to work with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address concerns about vaccine safety, but "it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary."
The April departures of Paul Kluetz and Marc Theoret follow resignations by other senior agency scientific staff and come on top of HHS’ plans to lay off 3,500 FDA employees.
About 3,500 full-time FDA employees are expected to be laid off as part of a restructuring of the Health and Human Services Department and experts questioned whether the cuts could be implemented without harming FDA’s core mission.
The General Services Administration’s updated list of “assets identified for accelerated disposition” does not include any buildings at the agency’s headquarters in White Oak, MD after its original list of “non-core” government properties for disposal had more than half the buildings on campus.
More from Pathways & Standards
A risk-based approach to human cell therapies and tissue-based products could incentivize development and prevent bad actors from taking advantage of the current FDA system.
Experts working in the advanced therapy space say the US has less strict criteria for regulatory pathways for cell and gene therapies than the EU, particularly for products in early development.
US FDA Commissioner nominee Martin Makary is being embraced by industry, and Senate Democrats, as a more traditional pick than other Trump Administration nominees, but the Make America Healthy Again agenda still is clearly coming to the agency.