The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine official, Vinay Prasad, has left the agency after just three months as Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, a government spokesperson said.

Prasad's exit ends a tumultuous tenure during which he led a reworking of agency guidelines on COVID vaccines and his office got embroiled in controversy over a Duchenne gene therapy.

Dr. Vinay Prasad had been serving as the FDA's director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research since May, and was later named chief medical and scientific officer.