US FDA May See Second Straight Year of Non-User Fee Funding Cuts From Congress

Limited capacity and a two-to-three year timescale for reformulation could mean that many VMS supplements disappear from the market, warns EPPA partner Alexandra Bocquillion, speaking at the AESGP Annual Meeting in Warsaw, Poland.

The White House requested $6.8bn for the FDA, down 3.9% from the current funding level, but does not propose any legislative changes. In previous years, the agency used the budget process to seek statutory fixes specific to generic drugs and shortages.

Some changes the administration has proposed are a “great example of regulating by press release,” says Duffy MacKay, CHPA’s dietary supplements chief. But “after 30 years, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act could be modernized to serve the consumer better.”

Result of firms marketing weight loss products to Black and Latino girls and to lower-income households is to “worsen health inequities by gender, race, ethnicity and income,” says Harvard researcher Bryn Austin, director of Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders.