Advamed CEO Scott Whitaker warned the Department of Health and Human Services that job cuts made over the weekend at the Food and Drug Administration could have a “very negative impact” on patient care and threaten the country’s position as the world’s medtech industry leader.
Whitaker, in a LinkedIn post Tuesday, wrote that “significant” cuts to the FDA’s staff were planned before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn into office as HHS Secretary last week. The round of cuts does not align with Kennedy’s goal of making America healthy again, Whitaker wrote.
Whitaker spelled out his concerns in a letter to the HHS.
The cuts at the FDA come as President Donald Trump carries out a large-scale plan to reduce the federal workforce through a newly named Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a Trump adviser.
Stat reported that Ross Segan, the FDA’s head of medical device safety, was among those eliminated by the layoffs. In the days following the job cuts, the leader of the FDA’s food division resigned, according to an NBC News report.
Advamed, one of the largest medtech industry groups, supports Trump’s aim to use taxpayer dollars more efficiently but sees the FDA staff cuts as counter to that goal, Whitaker said.
“I hope we are able to work with Secretary Kennedy, his leadership team, and that of FDA to reverse these cuts, and then put our heads together on policies that will achieve the aims of President Trump and DOGE but without putting patients and America’s leadership role in medtech at risk,” Whitaker said in the post.
Before the layoffs, the FDA was already struggling to keep up with tens of thousands of annual applications for devices, Whitaker said. But review times were improving, Whitaker added, due to the industry’s latest user fee agreement that created incentives for the agency to be more efficient.
“Unfortunately, as a result of these reductions, FDA will lose hundreds of new employees, the best and most innovative hires under our most recent agreement,” said Whitaker.
He called out the elimination of critical hires in the FDA’s AI operation as a particular concern, requiring non-experts to be reassigned to review artificial intelligence technologies with the potential to dramatically slow the process and make inappropriate decisions.
