Vinay Prasad, the controversial head of the Food and Drug Administration office that oversees vaccines and gene therapy, has abruptly left the agency after less than three months on the job.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed Prasad’s departure in an emailed statement Tuesday. “Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California to be with his family,” Nixon wrote. “We thank him for his service and the many reforms he was able to achieve in his time at the FDA.”

The news was reported earlier by the Pink Sheet and Endpoints News.

Prasad’s exit marks a sudden end to his tumultuous tenure as director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and R

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