FDA seeks more for its fiscal budget

ROCKVILLE, Md. The Food and Drug Administration is asking for 19% more than it got last year out of the fiscal year 2010 budget, the agency announced Thursday.

The agency is requesting a $3.2 billion budget from the Obama administration, covering the period from Oct. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2010 and including increases of $295.2 million in budget authority and $215.4 million in industry user fees.

The budget would include $166.4 million to product medical products, including drugs, devices, vaccines and others. Anticipating a regulatory pathway for biosimilars, the agency has also requested $5 million to give the FDA a new authority to approve biosimilars and to develop policies to allow Americans to buy drugs approved in other countries. Another $259.3 million would go to food safety.

“This historic increase in the FDA’s budget is a great investment in public health,” FDA acting commissioner of food and drugs Joshua Sharfstein stated.