Pharma Stocks Skid As FDA Critic Is Named Vaccine Regulator

Biotech and pharmaceutical stocks tumbled after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) named Dr. Vinay Prasad—a vocal critic of FDA policies and the U.S. COVID-19 response—as its top vaccine regulator.

Novavax dropped 3.2% at one point. I Photo: Toriino7

Prasad had previously condemned his predecessor, Dr. Peter Marks, as being too cozy with the pharmaceutical industry, Barron’s Daily reporters Josh Nathan-Kazis, Elsa Ohlen, and Janet H. Cho wrote.

Prasad, a hematologist-oncologist and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, is known for his confrontational style and outspoken commentary on YouTube, Substack, podcasts, and X (formerly Twitter).

He will replace Marks as director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research—the division responsible for vaccine approvals, among other duties.

Marks’s ouster in March sparked a biotech selloff and internal unrest in parts of the industry. In his resignation letter, Marks wrote that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wanted “subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

Prasad responded that Marks “is what happens when a mediocre academic becomes a pro-Pharma FDA regulator.” He has also defended layoffs at HHS agencies.

Shares of COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna fell 12.3%. Novavax dropped 3.2%, Gilead Sciences fell 4.8%, and Sarepta Therapeutics—which produces treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy—plunged 27%. Prasad has been especially critical of the FDA’s approval of Sarepta’s drugs.