(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s chief counsel, Hilary Perkins, has resigned, the federal agency said in a post on social media platform X on Thursday, just two days after her appointment was announced.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA and other agencies, has removed the news of her appointment from Tuesday’s official announcement.
The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Perkins could not be immediately reached for comment.
The resignation comes hours after Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri openly criticized Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FDA Commissioner, for Perkins’ appointment.
Perkins, who joined the Department of Justice in 2019 from a law firm in Washington, D.C., has previously defended the abortion pill mifepristone during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Hawley posted on X that Makary was “attempting to sneak a Biden abortion lawyer into top leadership at FDA”.
Following the news of the resignation, Hawley posted on the social media platform that he was “pleased to see that Dr. Makary has reconsidered his decision”.
Makary, who is yet to be confirmed to the FDA’s top role, has said he would take a “solid, hard look” at the data the FDA collects through its risk mitigation program on mifepristone, widely used in medical abortions and currently under assault by Republican-controlled states.
Before being appointed as the primary legal adviser to the FDA Commissioner, Perkins worked for the Justice Department’s consumer protection division.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
