The staff at the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco division are overwhelmed, leading to a division that is too reactionary and has “struggled to function as a regulator,” according to an outside report.
Earlier this year, I commissioned an external evaluationExternal Link Disclaimer of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Program, to be conducted by an external expert panel facilitated by the Reagan-Udall Foundation, led by former FDA Chief of Staff Lauren Silvis.
On December 19, the Reagan-Udall Foundation, an independent nonprofit tasked by Congress to help modernize the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), released a commissioned report on the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP).
An independent panel composed of former FDA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials is recommending changes to the FDA’s tobacco regulatory operation to more effectively regulate new tobacco products.
The lack of clear direction and priorities at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco division has hampered its ability to regulate electronic cigarettes and other products, according to an expert panel assembled to examine problems at the agency.
The arm of the FDA that oversees tobacco products has "struggled to function as a regulator" and has been "forced to operate primarily in a reactive mode" a report released Monday by the Reagan-Udall Foundation found.
An independent review of the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco regulators described them as overwhelmed, reactive and fatigued by an oppressive workload involving e-cigarettes and called for a major effort, by several parts of the Biden administration, to remove millions of illegal vaping products from the market.
Americans take the safety of our food for granted. But it's not safe by accident. Our food is safe because of laws that ensure food companies and farmers take steps to keep pathogens out of our food. And the enforcement of these laws depends on the people charged with making sure our food won't harm us.
An independent review of the US FDA’s food regulatory programs could renew a debate over splitting FDA into two agencies.
FDA and Congress need to overhaul the agency’s food program, including by making structural changes, such as establishing a separate food-focused agency under HHS, and appointing an overarching head of the food program to remedy issues with work culture and lack of a clear mission, a panel of experts from the Reagan-Udall Foundation wrote in an FDA-commissioned report released this week.
