Food Safety

The Trump administration is proposing a $40 million cut in FDA appropriations for the remainder of fiscal 2017, driven primarily by reductions in staffing, according to a document obtained by Inside Washington Publishers, which was recently sent to congressional appropriators.

States can use alternative payment models to bring prescription drug companies to the negotiating table and lower prices of drugs in the Medicaid drug rebate program without changing laws, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University told congressional advisers on Friday (March 3).

President Donald Trump on Monday (Jan. 30) signed an executive order declaring for every new regulation introduced, two must be eliminated in a bid to cut regulations by up to 75 percent, and said any new regulatory burdens must be offset by other deregulatory policies so there are no new regulatory dollars spent during the remainder of fiscal 2017.

FDA rules didn't make the short-list of regulations targeted by a conservative think tank in ongoing meetings with congressional Republicans for repeal under the Congressional Review Act, but Freedom Partners is separately pushing an FDA reform agenda that includes state passage of right-to-try legislation and expediting U.S. approval of drugs cleared by other countries, sources with the group tell Inside Health Policy.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) includes an FDA Food Safety Modernization Act final rule aimed at preventing terrorism attacks against the food supply on a list of more than 200 rules and regulations that he says “conservatives are requesting to be rolled back” in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration within the first 100 days in office, in a report published by his office Dec. 14.

FDA is making data from adverse event reports for food, dietary supplements and cosmetics regulated by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition available to the public.

Though Donald Trump has said little about his plans for FDA, food safety advocates are bracing for the possibility of regulatory rollbacks and budget cuts that could crimp implementation of the food safety law given the president-elect's regulatory reform and deficit-cutting pledges.

FDA's recently issued guidance on modifications to food product categories for food facility registration includes language that is binding on industry, to the surprise of industry lawyers and advocates.

FDA's recent move to ban vinpocetine as a dietary ingredient after 20 years of it being marketed in supplements, coming soon after the agency updated its NDI draft guidance, should be a wake-up call to industry that FDA plans to consign dietary ingredients in supplements to "a more limited market than for conventional foods," according to an industry lawyer.