'Toxic culture': WSJ delivers scorching farewell to FDA chief as Trump eyes ouster

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board threw its weight behind reports that President Donald Trump is planning to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary on Friday, and didn't hold back in explaining why.

"That would be great news for patients who have been denied access to life-saving therapies on his watch," the board wrote in a hard-hitting editorial published Friday.

The board, which had written approvingly of Makary's appointment last year, said he and his deputy Vinay Prasad did the opposite of what they promised, increasing regulatory rigidity rather than flexibility, and blocking promising treatments for rare diseases and cancer rather than expanding access to them.

Most damagingly, the board accused Makary of making "false statements in TV interviews about drugs the agency rejected" — and that sources told them he had also "misled a GOP Senator who met with him about a rare disease drug rejection." The board has said it caught Makary in a lie about a cancer drug rejection on national television.

The board also accused Makary of running counter to Trump's own "right to try" agenda by demanding large randomized controlled trials for treatments for deadly diseases, a standard the board derided as unethical, given that patients would die while waiting for results.

"Removing Dr. Makary is a necessary step to remedy a toxic culture that has taken hold at the FDA," the board concluded.

The editorial comes as Trump appeared blindsided Friday when a reporter asked him about reports he had already signed off on firing Makary, with the president saying only "I know nothing about it."