Consumer

Alonza Cruse, director of the Office of Human and Animal Drugs Inspectorate, and two other senior inspection officials are departing, along with Mark Raza, chief counsel from 2021 until January.

NAD and NARB track their decisions on support for ad claims with Federal Trade Commission policies, including the requirement of RCTs to support health claims for supplements, a standard the industry argues is required for drug claims and shouldn’t be applied for dietary ingredients.

CHPA Health In Hand Foundation accepting nominations for 2025 US Self-Care Marketing Awards; Celsius hires former PepsiCo as president/COO and closes $1.8bn acquisition of energy drink competitor Alani; and AdvoCare adds John Peirano as integrated marketing VP after hiring Kathy Blosser supply chain VP.

Lowell Zeta, a senior counselor at the FDA from 2020 to 2021, returns as deputy commissioner for strategic initiatives. The agency also names a new acting CIO and acting CVM director, but OGD's Ted Sherwood and OPDP's Catherine Gray retired.

HHS Secretary Kennedy commends food companies for cooperating, but also says, “We have them on the run now and we are going to win this battle. And four years from now, we're going to have most of these products off the market.”

In discussing FDA’s adverse event monitoring, Makary also seemed to falsely imply the agency did not fully investigate the myocarditis signal with COVID-19 vaccines.

HHS Secretary Robet F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to announce planned changes as “a major step forward” as part of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign President Trump has adopted for his administration.

The preliminary White House 2026 budget plan cuts agency funding, but not so sharply that user fees are excluded from collection.

Congress launched an inquiry into 23andMe amid privacy concerns following its bankruptcy, particularly regarding the potential sale of sensitive user data. Additionally, a Cybernews report gave 40 DNA testing firms an average cybersecurity grade of D, citing widespread vulnerabilities and data breaches, along with inadequate public information about their security practices.

Mark Meador most recently worked as a visiting fellow at conservative think tank Heritage Foundation’s Tech Policy Center and worked during Trump’s first term as a trial attorney in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. The two Democrat-appointee seats remain open while the members Trump recently fired contest his controversial decision.