Alliance Hill Days Scheduled for April 25 and 26. Please Participate!

Alliance Submits Senate Testimony on FDA’s FY 24 Budget. Last Friday, the Alliance submitted testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration. You can read that testimony in its entirety here.  Corresponding testimony will be submitted to the House Subcommittee next Monday in accordance with their deadline.

Alliance Hill Days Scheduled for April 25 and 26. Please Participate! Each Spring the Alliance for a Stronger FDA reaches out to Hill offices to emphasize our support for robust FDA appropriated resources. Our first two days will be Tuesday, April 25 and Wednesday, April 26. And so far, we have more than 30 virtual meetings scheduled with more to come! Please sign up to join us at the link below.

As veterans of this process will recall, we break into teams which hopefully represent a broad cross section of our membership. This illustrates the breadth of FDA’s work and its central role in public health and our economy.

We ask Alliance members to check their calendars and let Ben Dash know your availability on those two days. This promises to be a challenging appropriations cycle and your voice is important.

House Testimony Due April 10. Earlier this year, the House Appropriations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration established April 10 as the deadline for submittal of testimony. Our testimony will be submitted in accordance with that deadline and will closely track the Senate testimony linked above.

Dr. Susan Mayne on CSFAN’s Budget Request. On March 31the Alliance held a webinar with Dr. Susan Mayne, Director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). During an information-filled event she reviewed what the FY 23 Consolidated Appropriations Act provided for CFSAN, and a detailed description of the FY 24 request for CFSAN. A summary of her remarks can be found here and a transcript can be found here.

Dr. Peter Marks on CBER’s Budget Request.  The Alliance for a Stronger FDA on April 4 held its webinar regarding FDA’s FY 24 budget request with Dr. Peter Marks, Director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, known as CBER.  Dr. Marks discussed several budget priorities, including keeping up with pay costs and pandemic preparedness, but said there are no major new initiatives in CBER’s budget request, which is very similar to FY 23. A summary of his remarks can be found here and a transcript can be found here.

Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni on CDER’s Budget Request. The Alliance for a Stronger FDA on April 5 held its webinar with Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, the Director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) to discuss CDER’s budget request for FY 24, its ongoing work priorities, and challenges.  Dr. Cavazzoni provided important information and responded to several questions submitted by those participating in the webinar.  A summary of her remarks can be found here and a transcript of those remarks can be found here.

Webinar Series on FDA’s FY 24 Budget Request Continues Next Week. The Alliance’s FY24 budget webinar series concludes next week with these webinars:

Monday, April 10 at 3:00 PM ET   Ms. Tracey Forfa, CVM              Forfa event registration

Friday April 14 at 1:00 PM ET       Dr. Judith McMeekin, ORA            McMeekin event registration

We previously heard from CDRH Director Dr. Jeff Shuren, CFSAN Director Dr. Susan Mayne CBER Director Dr. Peter Marks and CDER Director Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni. Transcripts from those webinars are linked throughout today’s Friday update.