Top vaccine official Peter Marks forced out at FDA, WSJ reports

(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine official, Peter Marks, has been pushed out, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Marks, who played a key role in U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in developing COVID-19 vaccines, was given the choice by a Health and Human Services official to resign or be fired, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

"It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies," Marks wrote in a resignation letter addressed to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, the WSJ reported.

Marks' resignation is effective April 5, according to the report.

Reuters was not immediately able to reach Marks for comment.

"If Peter Marks does not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at (the) FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy," an HHS official said, declining to be identified.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spread misinformation on vaccines, earlier this week announced plans to reshape federal public health agencies, including cutting 10,000 employees and centralizing some functions of the FDA, CDC and others under his purview.

The Trump administration and the U.S. FDA did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside business hours.

(Reporting by Chris Thomas and Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler and Edwina Gibbs)