As per a no-nonsense report in BioCentury, President Trump’s FY18 FDA budget request envisions cutting medical product safety funding by $17.8 million. The cuts would reduce the agency’s ability to ensure the safety of imported drugs and ingredients, and to conduct safety research the agency characterizes as “critical.”
FDA stated that the budget proposal would also curtail "proactive" activities to respond to global disease outbreaks.
The proposed cutbacks are a consequence of the administration’s proposal to transfer 100% of the responsibility for funding medical product reviews to user fees. Some FDA medical product safety and regulatory science activities cannot be funded with user fees. There is almost no chance that Congress will agree to the Trump administration’s plan to rip up the user fee reauthorization agreements that FDA and industry have negotiated. It is not clear whether FDA intends to implement the medical product safety oversight cuts outlined in the budget if Congress rejects the administration’s revamped user fees.
To compensate for proposed budget cuts, the proposal said FDA will "support at lower funding levels regulated product field exams, import entry review, investigations, sample analysis, and inspections for surveillance, compliance, and follow up activities, both domestically and abroad." The proposal added: "Risk assessments will be impacted along with sharing information with regulatory partners." The proposed $11 million cut to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) medical product safety budget would require the center to “reprioritize and refocus how it promotes and protects public health,” the document said.
The cuts would include "some contracts that promote drug safety and research studies, investments in innovation and research, and training and development opportunities for personnel,” it said. The document said FDA will seek “to minimize the impact of these reductions on FDA‘s core mission activities.” The medical product safety budget at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) would be cut by $7.5 million. CBER would "reduce its applied scientific research, which supports the development of innovative products, in order to preserve critical regulatory oversight of its non-user fee programs that address blood components, tissues, and allergenic products." Spending on equipment upgrades and maintenance would be cut, as would "the number of research fellows hired to support the regulatory science program.”
The proposal noted that “research fellows bring innovative ideas, talents, and skills to FDA.” The budget proposal included reductions in CBER’s “work on the development of laboratory standards, including reference materials, assays, and methodologies that improve product quality and provide standards and guidance to address new technologies and emerging diseases.” If Trump’s budget is enacted, CBER would "reduce staff through attrition in its non-user fee activities that include the regulation of blood components, tissues, and allergenic products.”
CBER would be forced to “reprioritize how it provides advice to sponsors and reduce resources dedicated to the review of blood components for transfusion and allergenic extracts as well as the ability to provide advice to sponsors of tissues that do not require premarket review.”
As a result, CBER "may no longer be able to exceed its performance target to complete review and action on 90% of complete blood bank and source plasma Biologic License Application supplements within 12 months after submission date.” In addition, CBER would “limit proactive work to respond to infectious disease outbreaks globally, including limiting its active participation in international collaboration activities.”
More to come on this.
The proposed cutbacks are a consequence of the administration’s proposal to transfer 100% of the responsibility for funding medical product reviews to user fees. Some FDA medical product safety and regulatory science activities cannot be funded with user fees. There is almost no chance that Congress will agree to the Trump administration’s plan to rip up the user fee reauthorization agreements that FDA and industry have negotiated. It is not clear whether FDA intends to implement the medical product safety oversight cuts outlined in the budget if Congress rejects the administration’s revamped user fees.
To compensate for proposed budget cuts, the proposal said FDA will "support at lower funding levels regulated product field exams, import entry review, investigations, sample analysis, and inspections for surveillance, compliance, and follow up activities, both domestically and abroad." The proposal added: "Risk assessments will be impacted along with sharing information with regulatory partners." The proposed $11 million cut to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) medical product safety budget would require the center to “reprioritize and refocus how it promotes and protects public health,” the document said.
The cuts would include "some contracts that promote drug safety and research studies, investments in innovation and research, and training and development opportunities for personnel,” it said. The document said FDA will seek “to minimize the impact of these reductions on FDA‘s core mission activities.” The medical product safety budget at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) would be cut by $7.5 million. CBER would "reduce its applied scientific research, which supports the development of innovative products, in order to preserve critical regulatory oversight of its non-user fee programs that address blood components, tissues, and allergenic products." Spending on equipment upgrades and maintenance would be cut, as would "the number of research fellows hired to support the regulatory science program.”
The proposal noted that “research fellows bring innovative ideas, talents, and skills to FDA.” The budget proposal included reductions in CBER’s “work on the development of laboratory standards, including reference materials, assays, and methodologies that improve product quality and provide standards and guidance to address new technologies and emerging diseases.” If Trump’s budget is enacted, CBER would "reduce staff through attrition in its non-user fee activities that include the regulation of blood components, tissues, and allergenic products.”
CBER would be forced to “reprioritize how it provides advice to sponsors and reduce resources dedicated to the review of blood components for transfusion and allergenic extracts as well as the ability to provide advice to sponsors of tissues that do not require premarket review.”
As a result, CBER "may no longer be able to exceed its performance target to complete review and action on 90% of complete blood bank and source plasma Biologic License Application supplements within 12 months after submission date.” In addition, CBER would “limit proactive work to respond to infectious disease outbreaks globally, including limiting its active participation in international collaboration activities.”
More to come on this.
