‘Promises made, promises not kept,’ Dr. Richard Pazdur said.
A doctor who until recently was one of the most senior officials at the Food and Drug Administration said in his first public comments since his resignation that he left because promises that were made to him had been broken.
“Promises made, promises not kept,” said Dr. Richard Pazdur, who served as director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research for several weeks in late 2025.
Speaking at a forum in California on Jan. 12, he declined to detail what those promises were or who made them.
But Pazdur said he took offense at what he described as disrespect towards FDA staffers by Dr. Vinay Prasad, who heads the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Pazdur pointed in part to an email Prasad wrote that disclosed the FDA had determined that some children died due to COVID-19 vaccination. In the Nov. 28, 2025, missive, Prasad also told employees that leaking documents to the media was unethical and illegal, that the FDA was adopting new guidelines for vaccines, and that staffers who did not agree with “the core principles and operating principles” should submit their resignation.
“That is not how you treat people,” Pazdur said on Monday. “It is not appropriate.”
Pazdur, who joined the FDA in 2003, said that and other incidents caused him to ask himself if he wanted to work in such an environment.
He stepped down shortly after.
Prasad did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
The FDA appointed Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, who has worked closely with Prasad in the past, to head the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on an interim basis.
Pazdur also took aim at a new pilot program started by FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary that awards companies vouchers to accelerate the time it takes to review their products.
