Around 20 FDA employees, including those reviewing Elon Musk’s Neuralink, were fired over the weekend as part of a broader federal workforce purge, according to two sources. The cuts hit the FDA’s neurological and physical medicine devices office, which oversees brain-computer interface clinical trials.
The layoffs could slow medical device application reviews, including Neuralink’s, experts warn. Victor Krauthamer, a former FDA official, said the move intimidates regulators and raises concerns about the safety of Neuralink’s trials.
The FDA, White House, and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump has stated Musk will avoid conflicts of interest while pushing for government cost cuts.
Most fired employees were on probation, meaning they had less than one or two years of service and fewer legal protections, one source said. Neuralink is currently testing implants for paralyzed patients and working on a vision-restoring device. The FDA had previously fast-tracked one of Neuralink’s projects.
Musk, who spent over $250 million to support Trump’s re-election, has been leading government spending cuts, including at agencies regulating his companies, Tesla and SpaceX.
The dismissal letters cited performance issues, though the affected employees had received top performance ratings weeks earlier. Their supervisors were not consulted and learned about the firings from the employees themselves, the sources said.
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