Elon Musk faces more conflict-of-interest questions after DOGE fires FDA staff reviewing Neuralink

Since the moment the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was first proposed, Elon Musk’s critics have warned that the world’s richest man was at risk of making decisions that could be a conflict of interest, given his multiple business operations. With recent cuts at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), those fears are increasing.

Roughly 20 employees of the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices were let go over the weekend, part of a larger series of cuts. Among those were workers overseeing the review of Musk’s Neuralink brain implant company (as well as its competitors). Reuters, which first reported the layoffs, says its sources do not believe the employees were specifically targeted due to their work on Neuralink.

The FDA and Neuralink did not reply to a request from Fast Company for comment about the layoffs.

The layoffs at the FDA were overseen by DOGE, Reuters reports. Reviewers who were terminated received letters saying they were being let go for performance reasons, though many had just received high rankings in the past several weeks. Supervisors of the cut employees were reportedly not consulted before the layoffs and found out about them when their direct reports contacted them.

Musk announced the first brain implant, which enables paralyzed people to access digital devices via thought, in a human subject about a year ago. Earlier this month, he said the company has upgraded the devices with more electrodes, higher bandwidth, and longer battery life. Additionally, Neuralink is working on a separate implant, which it hopes will restore vision for sight-impaired people.

To date, Neuralink has announced three patients who have received the brain implant and said the company hopes to implant the devices in as many as 30 more people this year. The loss of review workers could slow that larger rollout, however. (Neuralink also did not comment on whether the staff reductions at the FDA office would impact its timeline.)

Industry watchdogs warn that the cuts to the FDA staff could lessen oversight of such devices, which could potentially put patients at risk. That’s particularly worrisome given the early controversy with Neuralink implants, where monkeys used in trials have reportedly died grisly deaths.

“Neuralink has a well-documented history of conducting unnecessary, sloppy experiments in monkeys, pigs, sheep, and other animals that raise serious concerns about the safety of its device,” the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine told Fast Company. “A significant number of medical devices approved for clinical trials fail to ever make it to the market. As such, the public should continue to be skeptical of the safety and functionality of any device produced by Neuralink.”

The group instead suggested Musk explore noninvasive methods. 

Musk denied that any monkeys died due the implants, saying instead that they were “terminally ill.” That prompted lawmakers to ask the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate whether those statements constituted securities fraud by misleading investors about the safety of the implants.

The SEC has not brought any charges against Musk for the statement but did send him a letter last December saying the Commission had reopened an investigation into the company. With the resignation of former SEC head Gary Gensler and Trump assuming office, it’s unclear if the investigation will yield any penalties for Musk, if it’s even still open.

This is not the first time DOGE actions have an impact that some might consider a potential conflict of interest (although the White House, on Tuesday, claimed Musk is not the administrator for DOGE, contradicting public evidence to the contrary). On Monday, Musk said SpaceX would review the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s systems following job cuts at the FAA. And on February 7, Musk celebrated the all-but-complete shutdown of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, posting, “CFPB RIP” on X. That came as X is working to roll out a financial services unit that would have been regulated by the CFPB under expanded oversight powers over mobile payment apps, which were finalized last year.

The Trump administration has since agreed to pause layoffs and funding cuts at the CFPB, following a federal judge’s order last Friday. 

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