Dr. Margaret Hamburg will step down from her post as Commissioner of the FDA next month. Hamburg and the FDA were busy in the few days before the announcement of her resignation, however. The Agency released a budget request for FY 2016, and Hamburg wrote a recap of the FDA’s past year. Below is a summary of both.
FDA’s Budget for FY 2016
In FDA’s budget request, Hamburg stated that the agency is requesting a total of $4.9 billion, including a $148 million budget authority to: increase focus on improved oversight of imported foods, combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, promote the development and appropriate use of reliable molecular and genetic diagnostics to “personalize” the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease (which raises potential concern over FDA’s desire to regulate laboratory developed tests), implement key FDASIA requirements to improve medical product review and inspections, and address the safety of compounded drugs.
While most of FDA’s requested increase is for food safety oversight, on the medical product safety side, they include a $33.2 million increase in budget authority to support its key safety priorities.
In its press release regarding the budget, FDA states that five major pieces of groundbreaking legislation passed since 2009 have greatly increased the FDA’s responsibilities. Hamburg writes:
FDA’s responsibilities continue to expand as we work to fulfill the mandates of groundbreaking legislation passed in recent years, including the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011, the FDA Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) of 2012, and the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013. Further, with so many FDA-regulated products manufactured in whole or in part outside of our borders, FDA is keenly focused on the complexities of regulating in a global marketplace.
FDA’s 2014 Accomplishments
Hamburg also reflected on the accomplishments of FDA during the past year, which include:
Drug Approvals: This past calendar year, FDA approved 51 novel drugs and biologics (41 by CDER and 10 by CBER), the most in almost 20 years. Among CDER’s 2014 approvals are treatments for cancer, hepatitis C and type-2 diabetes, as well as the most new drugs for “orphan” diseases since Congress enacted the Orphan Drug Act over 30 years ago. Seventeen of these new approvals are “first in class” therapies, which represent new approaches in the treatment of disease. In addition, CBER approved many important biological products in 2014, including a number of groundbreaking vaccines for meningitis B, the flu, and certain types of Human Papillomavirus, the latter of which is expected to prevent approximately 90 percent of the cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers caused by HPV.
Opioids: This past year FDA took several actions to address the abuse of opioid drugs. First, we approved abuse deterrent labeling for three opioid products that are designed to deter prescription drug abuse. These drugs used different technologies to combat the abuse problem in different ways, such as by making the product resistant to crushing or dissolving or using “aversive technology” to discourage users from taking more than the approved dosage of the drug. To help encourage the development of more drugs in abuse-deterrent forms, we are also working to provide additional advice to manufacturers. Although abuse-deterrent opioid drugs are not a silver bullet to prevent opioid abuse, we believe that our work in this area will give physicians effective new treatment options with less risk of abuse.
FDA also worked to improve the treatment of patients who overdose on opioids. We approved a new dosage form of naloxone, with an autoinjector to enable a caregiver to administer the drug in the emergency treatment of opioid overdose (as it rapidly reverses the effects of an overdose). While we continue to support development in this area, this approval offers a new valuable tool to help prevent the tragedy of opioid drug overdose.
Antibiotic Resistance: We made important strides in confronting the growing resistance of some bacteria to antimicrobial drugs. Our efforts, which are a critical part of the recently unveiled National Strategy on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, offer a multi-pronged approach that recognizes that to effectively address this challenge means simultaneously addressing the many different causes for increasing antibiotic resistance. One important response has been efforts to expand the pipeline of new medical products, including therapeutics to treat and cure infection, diagnostics to aid in the identification of the cause of infection and of resistant infections, and vaccines to help prevent infection with bacteria in the first place.
These efforts are already having an impact. In 2014, FDA approved four novel systemic antibiotics. In contrast, only five new antibiotics had been approved in the previous ten year period.
Pharmacy Compounding: We continued to respond effectively to the 2012 outbreak of fungal meningitis that was linked to contaminated compounded drugs. This included conducting more than 90 inspections of compounding facilities across the nation in the past year. As a result, numerous firms that engaged in poor sterile practices stopped making sterile drugs, and many firms recalled drugs that have been made under substandard conditions. Where appropriate, we have worked with the Department of Justice to pursue enforcement action against some of these facilities.
We also have continued to implement the compounding provisions of the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA), and to develop and implement policies to address compounding by state-licensed pharmacies and the new category of registered outsourcing facilities.
Hamburg addressed the agency’s work on Ebola, nutrition facts updates, and tobacco control as well; view her entire post here.