- The Department of Government Efficiency fired the FDA employees who were responsible for overseeing the clinical trial applications of neurological and physical medical devices, including those made by Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Reuters reported. Experts worry the firings could hinder the safety and speed of technologies’ approval.
The Department of Government Efficiency has reportedly eliminated the jobs of those overseeing Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink within the Food and Drug Administration, as part of President Donald Trump’s mass culling of government jobs.
The firings over the weekend included about 20 employees who were part of the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices, responsible for reviewing clinical trial applications of brain implant technology, including Neuralink, two anonymous sources told Reuters. The sources said they did not believe the employees assigned to review Neuralink were specifically targeted in the wave of firings.
The sackings come amid a larger purge of about 5,200 workers in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. The cuts impacted probationary employees, or those with less than two years of experience who don’t have the same legal protections as senior workers. The anonymous sources told Reuters the letters of dismissal cited performance issues, despite the fired employees receiving positive feedback on reviews several weeks ago.
The FDA’s office of neurological and physical medical devices is responsible for providing expertise and guidance “with regard to safety and effectiveness of medical devices throughout the total product lifecycle.” Industry experts are concerned the mass sacking of HHS employees will endanger the safety and speed at which pharmaceuticals are approved.
“The cumulative effects of threatened cuts to federal health research funding and forced departures at our nation’s premier health agencies will put our global leadership and our nation’s health at risk,” a coalition of patient organizations, including the Friends of Cancer Research and the American Diabetes Association, said in a statement.
The FDA, the White House, and Neuralink did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.
Neuralink’s relationship with the FDA
Neuralink is developing technology that would implant a tiny chip in the brains of some paralyzed individuals that would allow them to control certain computer functions with just their minds. The FDA approved Neuralink for its first human clinical trial in May 2023. Last month, Neuralink implanted a device in a third person, with the goal of an additional 20 to 30 implants this year, according to Musk.
The mind behind both DOGE and Neuralink, Musk may have created an ouroboros of his technology company’s development and approval. When DOGE was announced last month, Musk was to lead the cost-cutting initiative. However, the White House has obscured Musk’s own role in DOGE, saying in a court filing Monday he is not an employee of the special advisory and that he lacks legal authority to make decisions.
Musk’s influence on government hirings and firings are already plain to see. The Office of Personnel Management—which mirrored Musk’s mass layoff strategy at X to offer a buyout to about 2 million federal employees—consists of numerous new employees with links to Musk’s companies, including a 2024 high school graduate who had a summer role at Neuralink, Wired reported. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this month Musk would rule on his own conflicts of interest within the government.
Patti Zettler, a law professor at Ohio State University and former deputy general counsel to HHS, is dubious the mass firings will save HHS any money because so much of the department’s money comes from user fees, or charges companies pay to the government in order to expedite a product’s approval. For example, about half of the FDA’s budget is made up of user fees, some of which are used to support employees reviewing pharmaceuticals. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed HHS secretary, has opposed pharmaceutical user fees, saying they create a barrier for smaller companies to gain approval for their technologies.
“When we think about all of the layoffs across HHS, none of them are going to save the taxpayer money in the long run,” Zettler told NPR. “It is especially clear that laying off FDA staff who are funded by user fees will not save the taxpayers any money. The taxpayers are not paying for these employees.”
