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Makary, who has served in the role for just over a year, experienced criticism both from inside and outside the Trump administration, including his resistance to authorising flavoured vapes and to tightening restrictions on abortion pills.
“He was having some difficulties,” Trump told the media at the White House, adding that the role would be filled by a deputy until a permanent replacement is found.
The British-American surgeon is the latest top health official to be dismissed under Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. Earlier this year, HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill left his post. The head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, left the agency last year.
Makary, a former surgeon at the prestigious Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University, rose to prominence as an advocate for the Make America Healthy Again movement. As he left the White House on Tuesday for a state visit to China, Trump confirmed Makary’s exit while taking questions from reporters.
He praised him as “a great doctor” and “a friend”.
“He’s going to go on and he’s going to do well,” said the president, without specifying whether Makary was fired or resigned.
In his role as commissioner, which includes assuring the safety and efficacy of prescription drugs and regulating tobacco products, Makary reportedly triggered internal tension when he pushed back against a White House plan to authorise more flavoured vapes.
Makary had blocked FDA approval of vape fruit flavours made by a US company, even after scientists at his agency had greenlit the products, the Wall Street Journal reported last month. Health advocates have long argued that fruit-flavoured vapes are dangerous because they appeal to children, but Trump has repeatedly said he would get such products approved.
The FDA announced in early May that it was authorising the first fruit-flavoured e-cigarette products, mango and blueberry, as well as menthol vapes produced by Los Angeles-based company Glas. Makary had also faced criticism over the FDA’s recent approval of a generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone, a move that will make the drug cheaper and more accessible.
An anti-abortion nonprofit, Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, had called for Makary to be fired over the drug’s approval. He had also drawn the ire of pharmaceutical companies after a wave of drug rejections, particularly for rare disease treatments and cancer therapies.
