ARPA-H Director Fired by Trump Administration

Renee Wegrzyn, the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, was fired today by the Trump administration, more than a year before the end of her four-year term.

“As administrations change, federal agencies’ leadership often changes to align with the incoming president’s priorities,” said a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services in an email. “Accordingly, Dr. Wegrzyn is no longer the director of ARPA-H.”

Writing on Linkedin this afternoon, Wegrzyn said it had been the “honor of her career” to serve as ARPA-H’s first director.

“For the past two and a half years, I have woken up each day with both excitement and a sense of urgency to build a new and transformative capability for the American people,” Wegrzyn wrote.

“While today started the same way, it ends such that I no longer have the opportunity to serve as the director of ARPA-H,” said Wegrzyn. “While this chapter closes, I remain incredibly grateful for the extraordinary privilege of working alongside visionary ARPA-Humans to pursue what once seemed impossible: redefining how we tackle human health and accelerating breakthroughs to improve lives.”

The administration has not yet announced Wegrzyn’s successor. Her profile was removed from the ARPA-H website earlier today.

ARPA-H is modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and aims to support transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs. The agency was created in 2022 as part of the Department of Health and Human Services and currently has an annual budget of $1.5 billion.

The ARPA-H director is appointed by the president and does not require Senate confirmation. The law that authorized ARPA-H states that its director has an appointment of four years that can be extended for one more four-year term. Wegrzyn was appointed by President Joe Biden in September 2022.

Wegrzyn’s departure comes amid reports of mass layoffs across health agencies in the wake of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as HHS secretary yesterday.