Alliance Quarterly Membership Meeting and more

Advocacy at a Glance offers you the bullet point summary of current advocacy issues associated with the goals of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.

• Alliance Quarterly Membership Meeting: The next Quarterly Alliance Membership meeting will take place on Wednesday, October 26 at 2:00 p.m. The Special Guest Speaker will be Stephen Spielberg, MD, PhD, who is FDA Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco. Please note that this meeting is on a Wednesday and not our usual Thursday.

• Hill Meetings.  The Alliance met with the office of Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R, KY) this past week.

• Office of Management and Budget Meeting.  The Alliance met with officials from OMB on Thursday, October 13 to discuss FDA funding for FY 2013.

• Bio-Response Report Card Says US Still Unprepared; Finds FDA Lacks Funding:  The report released by the bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center warns that the FDA can not establish an effective countermeasure program with 1-year funding and with unpredictable resource allocations. "Priority must be placed on creating long-term funding of FDA research, the same way the Department of Defense provides long-term funding for weapons development."

Other upcoming advocacy events coordinated by Alliance member organizations include the following:

• FasterCures Webinar: Faster Cures will be holding a Q&A on regulatory science with FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on October 17 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.  To register for the Webinar please click here.

• Breakfast Briefing, Why Investment in Biomedical Research is Necessary: A Case Study on Myeloma.  This breakfast briefing will be held on Tuesday, October 25 between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. at the Rayburn House Building, Room B-30. Opening remarks will be made by Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D, CA). For more information please e-mail Arin Assero at the International Myeloma Foundation.