Obama Seeks More Money for FDA Budget, More Inspections, and More Generic Drugs
The Food and Drug Administration, dogged by critics for its recent handling of deadly outbreaks of food poisoning and defective drugs and medical devices, stands to receive millions more in funding under the proposed budget of President Barack Obama.
Much of the additional money would be earmarked to strengthen FDA inspections of food processing facilities and boost the number of less-expensive generic drugs, two areas which Obama had vowed to address before taking office.
Obama’s proposed budget would include a 19-percent increase in the FDA budget, boosting the funding from $2.7 billion in the 2009 fiscal year to $3.2 billion for 2010. About $260 million of the FDA budget would be spent on protecting the nation’s food supply, FDA officials said.
Critics of the FDA have said the agency is outmanned to handle the job of ensuring the safety of the U.S. food supply and drug industries. With more and more international firms contributing increasingly advanced products into the marketplace, the FDA has been knocked for being understaffed while relying on outdated technology to track products.
Protecting Food Supply a Primary Focus
A major focus of the additional funds for the FDA would be improving efforts to protect the nation’s food supply, which would receive $259.3 million of the budget. The FDA would hold the food industry more accountable for ensuring the safety of food products it produces and seek to better account for the individual ingredients, components, and finished products as they make their way through the manufacturing process. Doing so would limit intentional and accidental contamination of food, such as the deadly salmonella outbreak tied to contaminated peanuts in 2008 and 2009.
The money would help pay for more frequent and stringent FDA inspections of food processing plants and other food facilities, officials said.
More Less-Expensive Generic Drugs
Obama’s proposed budget also calls for more funding to help clear the backlog of generic drugs now awaiting FDA review. Makers of generic drugs say they are willing to pay more filing fees to speed up the approval process, which could raise $36 million to improve the process of reviewing generic versions of drugs, officials said.
The budget also would include $5 million for the FDA “to develop policies to allow Americans to buy drugs approved in other countries.” It’s no secret that patients in Canada and other countries pay considerably less for their medications than people in the United States. The new policies would seek to improve Americans’ access to those reduced costs.
Related posts:
- Taking Aim at ‘Pay-to-Delay’ Tactics for Generic Drugs When brand-name drug makers want to keep a competitive advantage...
- Make Cheaper Generic Biotech Drugs Available Sooner, FTC Urges Making less-expensive generic versions of costly brand-name biotechnology drugs available...
- Top Senator Pushes Obama for Fast Action on Cheaper Generic Drugs Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) is urging President Barack Obama to...
- Deal Struck to Provide Cheaper Generic AIDS Drugs to Poorer Nations The fight against AIDS, a leading killer of people around...
- New Legislation Would Introduce Generic Biotech Drugs Faster Bipartisan legislation introduced today in the U.S. Senate would make...
