Flat Congress funding will make FDA more reliant on user fees
President Obama’s budget for 2013 projects FDA funding of $2.5bn (€1.9bn), flat year-on-year, but user fees will give it more cash.
Under the plans for 2013 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will get $2.5bn from Congress, a slight rise on the year before, and cash from user fees will soar. The uptick in user fees will result from enactment of GDUFA (the generic drug user fee act) and a policy related to food inspections.
“These are austere budget times, and the FDA budget request reflects this reality. Our budget increases are targeted to strategic areas that will help…address the challenges of increased globalisation”, Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA, said.
By 2013 user fees will account for 44 per cent of FDA funding. In 2011 one-third of FDA funding came from user fees. As well as GDUFA, FDA coffers will benefit from increases to existing user fees.
