Several U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employees involved in the review of Tesla TSLA Chief, Elon Musk‘s private brain implant company, Neuralink, were reportedly dismissed over the weekend.
What Happened: The cuts reportedly affected about 20 individuals from the FDA’s Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, including several who were working on Neuralink, reported Reuters on Tuesday.
Reportedly, these were mainly the probationary officers who were fired as part of a broader federal workforce purge. That division is responsible for overseeing clinical trial applications submitted by Neuralink and other companies developing brain-computer interface devices.
The sources, on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that they did not believe the employees were deliberately targeted because of their work on Neuralink’s applications.
These dismissals could potentially slow down the FDA’s ability to process medical device applications, including those from Neuralink, as per the sources and external experts. A former FDA official, Victor Krauthamer expressed that this situation is intimidating for FDA professionals overseeing Neuralink’s trial. "We should be worried about the whole trial, and the protection of the people in the trial,” warned Krauthamer.
Kush Desai, the White House spokesman, told Reuters that the Trump administration “will abide by ethics laws.”
The FDA and Musk’s team did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
Why It Matters: While Elon Musk’s DOGE is on a mission to purge the federal workforce to lower government expenditure, Patti Zettler, a law professor at Ohio State University and former deputy general counsel to HHS reveals that a large portion of the FDA budget comes from user fees. "It is especially clear that laying off FDA staff who are funded by user fees will not save the taxpayers any money. The taxpayers are not paying for these employees,” Zettler told NPR.
Notably, in March, the U.S. FDA inspectors found issues with record-keeping and quality controls in animal experiments at Elon Musk’s Neuralink. However, less than a month after that, Neuralink live-streamed its first patient with a chip implant, showcasing him using his mind to play online chess.
However, Kip Ludwig, former program director for neural engineering at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, does not think Neuralink was a “breakthrough.” “It is still in the very early days post-implantation, and there is a lot of learning on both the Neuralink side and the subject’s side to maximize the amount of information for control that can be achieved,” Ludwig explained.
Despite facing stiff competition from companies like Precision Neuroscience, which raised $102 million in its latest funding round, Neuralink has managed to secure over $600 million in funding and continues to dominate the industry.
Image via Shutterstock
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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