House Appropriates Nearly $3 Billion for FDA

Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2997, the Fiscal Year 2010 Agriculture–FDA Appropriations bill, which sets aside $2.995 billion for the US Food and Drug Administration. Of the funds made available, about $873 million is designated for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and roughly $305 million is intended for the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and related field activities in the Office of Regulatory Affairs.

Introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the bill provides the amount that President Obama requested for the agency, which is roughly $373 million more than FDA’s budget for fiscal 2009. The funds will help FDA improve the safety of domestic and imported food and medical products by allowing the agency to hire additional inspectors and conduct more inspections, according to a statement on Rep. DeLauro’s website.

“The FDA’s primary responsibility is to the American people, to ensure the safety of the food they eat, the drugs they take, and the medical devices they rely on,” said DeLauro in the statement. “With this increased funding, they’ll have the resources and manpower they need to keep us safe.”

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) applauded the bill’s funding increase for FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs (OGD). The bill will help ensure that consumers have timely access to generic medicines, said Kathleen Jaeger, president of GPhA, in a statement issued last week.

“There is no doubt that increasing access to generic medicines will help reduce healthcare costs, particularly during these difficult economic times. We encourage the Senate to keep the momentum going to increase funding to ensure that safe, effective, and affordable generic medicines are available to patients,” said Jaeger in the statement.

Last week, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) introduced S. 1406, the Senate version of the House appropriations bill. The Senate bill includes the same funding levels as the House bill and designates nearly $52 million for OGD. The bill is on the Senate calendar and awaits consideration.