Several high-profile agencies are affected by the cuts, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health. The layoffs in this sector are part of a broad plan by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to shrink the federal government and slash spending, according to Reuters.



Prominent departures at the FDA include Peter Stein, the director of the Office of New Drugs in its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research division who resigned after being faced with being fired, according to a source familiar with the matter, Brian King, the head of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products division, who was fired, according to an email sent by King to FDA staff and Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine official, who was forced to resign, reports Reuters.

Staff members have also been leaving with remaining employees saying they are struggling to meet their deadlines.

“The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed,” former Commissioner Robert Califf wrote in a LinkedIn post.

“I believe that history will see this a huge mistake,” he wrote. “It will be interesting to hear from the new leadership how they plan to put ‘Humpty Dumpty’ back together again.”

Cuts at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products included the Office of Management and Office of Regulations in their entirety, said the center’s former director, Mitch Zeller, citing a contact still at the center, according to Reuters.

“I think that this makes it virtually impossible for CTP to regulate tobacco products,” Zeller said.

A few days later, US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr admitted that 20 per cent of the 10,000 job cuts were made in error and must be reversed. Among the areas affected was the FDA, including the department responsible for tobacco policy, reports The Guardian.