NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulators plan to leave the agency in the next several months, the FDA said on Tuesday.

The FDA is “confident in the expertise and ability of our staff to continue our critical public health work, including evaluating COVID-19 vaccines,” spokesperson Stephanie Caccomo said in an emailed statement.

Dr. Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review (OVRR), plans to retire on Oct. 31, according to a memo from Peter Marks, director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). OVRR is part of CBER.

Gruber had been with the FDA for 32 years.

Gruber’s deputy, Dr. Philip Krause, also plans to leave the FDA in November, according to Marks.

Marks said he will serve as the acting director of the vaccines group while the FDA searches for its next director. The search process will begin immediately, he said.

The memo did not give a reason for Gruber’s or Krause’s departures.

The departures were first reported by BioCentury earlier on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot)