Top FDA Vaccine Official Peter Marks Resigns From Agency

The official was involved in the pandemic-era Operation Warp Speed to produce COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration, answers a question during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 11, 2021. Greg Nash/AFP via Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official submitted his letter of resignation on March 28, citing some of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s initiatives.

In a letter to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, Dr. Peter Marks said that he will step down by April 5 as the head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which handles regulating vaccines for the agency. It also oversees allergenic products, blood products, as well as cellular, tissue, and gene therapies.

Marks oversaw the agency’s rapid review and approval of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments during the pandemic. Marks was also credited with coming up with the “Operation Warp Speed” name for the effort to quickly develop vaccines during that time period.

“As you are aware, I was willing to work to address the Secretary’s concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency by hearing from the public and implementing a variety of different public meetings and engagements with the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine,” Marks said.

“However, 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 said, without elaborating.

Marks, who The Epoch Times could not reach for comment Sunday, also said he’s concerned about what he called “efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination” and the “unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation.”

Elsewhere in the letter, Marks made note of vaccines that were used in the late 18th century against smallpox and pointed to an outbreak of measles in recent weeks.

“The ongoing multistate measles outbreak that is particularly severe in Texas reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined,” he wrote.

Kennedy has not publicly responded to Marks’ letter. The Epoch Times contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.

An HHS official released a statement to news media over the weekend that “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.”

Officials in Texas and New Mexico said that more than 440 cases of measles have been reported in the two states since January. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 28 confirmed 483 measles cases in 19 states total so far in 2025.

Late last month, Kennedy wrote that handling the measles outbreak is one of his top priorities and that vaccines for the virus were sent to impacted areas in Texas and New Mexico.

HHS will provide “lab support to better track the virus causing the outbreak,” will communicate “with public health officials every day in all affected areas to support their response and ensure they have the resources they need,” and provide communications to local communities, Kennedy said in a post on the social media platform X.

The secretary also told Fox News in March that he traveled to Texas and said that patients are receiving various treatments for measles, including vitamin A and other therapeutics.

The news of Marks’ resignation from the FDA also comes as HHS said it plans to lay off around 10,000 workers and shut down multiple agencies, saying that the move is designed to reduce bureaucracy and redundancies within the sprawling health agency.

“Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants,” Kennedy said in a statement. “This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.