Marty Makary’s turn in the spotlight

The spotlight has swiveled to Marty Makary in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of his intention to nominate the surgeon and pundit as FDA commissioner. The scrutiny has brought to light a previously undisclosed career as CMO at a company that promotes compounded semaglutide products, a board position on a pharmaceutical company, and advisory board positions at health benefits companies.

The attention has also renewed interest in Makary’s history of intemperate criticism of senior FDA officials, support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s fringe medical ideas, and close relationships with controversial scientists, including Vinay Prasad, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco, and Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford who is on the Trump transition team’s shortlist of NIH Director candidates. ...