F-off? US Bill wants FDA to focus on drugs and hand food oversight to new agency
The State Food Act of 2015, which was introduced last week, would hand oversight of the US food and dietary supplements industry to the new agency.
The current FDA refocusing its efforts on pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and tobacco products, which would most likely result in a name change according to observers posting on Twitter.
Impact
The proposal comes weeks after Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research launched the US agency’s Office of Pharmaceutical Quality, which she said consolidates CDER programmes and provides industry and assessors with a clearer way of measuring drug quality.
How the State Food Act proposals will impact the office of drug quality or any other of the FDA’s programmes is unclear. However, according to its 2014 budget, the agency spends around 23% of its $4.6bn a year funding on oversight of the food industry.
The FDA is funded by both the US Government and through “user fees” – monies paid by firms seeking approval for a new product. At present the agency’s food programmes get $866m from the Government and $223m from the food industry.
