HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson native and former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Dr. Rick Bright has left his current position with the federal government. Bright resigned from the federal government Tuesday, according to a press release from his lawyer. Bright was most recently with the National Institute of Health.
Bright went public with a complaint in May, alleging he had been removed from BARDA as an agency head because he resisted pressure to flood the New York area with hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that President Donald Trump was touting as a treatment for COVID-19.
Bright graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1984 and studied at the University of Kansas. He began his medical career in Olathe.