#houman — Public Fediverse posts

The Trump administration is considering #Houman #Hemmati, an ophthalmologist, entrepreneur and frequent Fox News guest,
to serve as the nation’s next top regulator of #vaccines and treatments for complex diseases

If selected, Hemmati would replace #Vinay #Prasad, who is slated to leave the high-ranking position at the Food and Drug Administration at the end of April
after a rocky year.

Prasad had overseen controversial decisions about drugs and a new plan to tighten vaccine approvals, which drew condemnation from former agency leaders.

Prasad was briefly forced out last summer after just three months on the job.
He was reinstated less than two weeks later with the help of vaccine critic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.

Hemmati, if given the job, would arrive amid scrutiny from the White House on FDA operations.

Concerns over the agency’s direction mounted late last year as leadership turned over,
rattling the drug industry,
which relies on a predictable FDA to understand what it needs to do to win approvals for new treatments.

Hemmati has served in various industry roles,
including top medical positions at Optigo Biotherapeutics,
which focuses on treatments for neovascular and degenerative retinal diseases,
and Vyluma, a company developing eye drops.

He has worked as an adjunct clinical assistant professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Hemmati’s outspoken skepticism of the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic helped win him fans,
including Makary and then-Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya
— who now hold senior roles in the Trump administration.

Hemmati, who has said he was forced to flee Iran with his family as a child, also has supported President Donald Trump’s efforts for regime change in the country, expressing support for the American military in a TV appearance last month and on social media.


In 2023, Hemmati questioned why the federal government should be paying for more coronavirus vaccines.

He praised a new approach to the coronavirus vaccine that Prasad outlined last year, which narrowed approval for updated shots to older adults and people with at least one health condition. -- In past years, shots had been broadly recommended, including to children and generally healthy adults