The purging of federal employee carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ) somehow just keeps cutting staffers involved in enquire Elon Musk ’s company . According to areport from Reuters , several employee at the US Food and Drug Administration who were tasked with managing review and lotion related to Musk ’s Neuralink get pink slips over the weekend .
Per Reuters , 20 the great unwashed who worked in the FDA ’s office of neurologic and forcible medical specialty twist got ax as part of a extensive endeavor being carried out by DOGE to issue down the federal workforce . Several of those employees worked directly on Neuralink , Musk ’s companionship that produces mental capacity - computing machine interfaces design to be implant in a human brain , and were task with reviewing clinical trial program .
While the sources Reuters spoke to said they did not think those employee were specifically targeted , the reduction of workers within the medical twist position is n’t going to make things any easier for companies like Neuralink , which probably want to see the blessing unconscious process speed up . Fewer people to okay software either means that the appendage retard down even more or corners get hack . Take a guess at which of those option Musk likely prefers .
Targeted or not , it ’s noteworthy just how oft people involved in regulating Musk - own company are getting hit by DOGE - initiate layoffs . harmonize to areport from the New York Times , at least 11 federal agencies targeted by DOGE cutting have ongoing actions relate to Musk ’s firms — a totality of 32 investigations , complaint , and enforcement actions that seem likely to either labour to a halt or disappear as a result of faculty simplification .
Neuralink in particular seems to have benefit from effort to squash watchdog . Last month , the Inspector General at the US Department of Agriculture had to beremoved from her office by securityafter refusing to follow with her termination , which she believe was illegal . She bump to behead up an investigation into Neuralinklooking into whether the companionship was spoil animal welfare rules refer to its test on animal depicted object .
The FDA , too , has been looking into similar issues . Last twelvemonth , the representation found that Neuralink ’s animal labs engaged in “ objectionable conditions or practices ” and urged the company to treat the issues — but did not come out any punitive action mechanism link to the investigation .
Neuralink and the FDA also had a repulsion over set aside the company to move forward with human trial run , a request that theFDA turn down over safety risksin 2022 before in the end allowing modified trials tomove forward a year later . In 2024 , the FDA even gift Neuralink its“breakthrough equipment ” designation , which allows for a speedier reassessment process . The only thing quicker might be no review at all .
DOGEElon MuskFDANeuralink
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