FDA chief defends regulator’s ‘bargain’ budget

Markus MacGill

pharmaphorum

The US Food and Drug Administration’s chief has been defending the regulator’s budget in a Senate hearing.

Margaret Hamburg, the FDA commissioner, has described the value of the body as a “true bargain”.

Hamburg’s comments come as she requests Congress for an increase in her budget to improve food safety, police imports and develop countermeasures against chemical and biological threats.

The commissioner also wants more money so that the FDA can oversee specialty pharmacies involved in compounding drugs. Such pharmacies have come under the spotlight since a recent outbreak of meningitis resulting from lax processes in their premises.

“FDA is a true bargain among federal agencies… Americans each pay about $8 a year for FDA’s appropriations… For about 2 cents a day, Americans get an extraordinary array of public health benefits.”

Margaret Hamburg, US Food and Drug Administration commissioner.

Most of the FDA’s income is generated by fees paid by companies to review their products for US marketing approval. The proposal for the 2014 budget would see it rise by $821 million compared with 2012 spending, to $4.7 billion, of which industry fees would account for $770 million, or 94 per cent.

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