Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It has announced wide cuts in federal health services, including the Food and Drug Administration, which will eliminate double services and paper promoters.
But in interviews with more than twelve today and former members of the FDA staff, there was a different picture of the extensive effects of redundancies that would eventually reduce the organization’s workforce by 20 %. Among them are experts who navigate a maze of laws to determine if an expensive drug can be sold as a low -cost general. Laboratory scientists who examined food and drugs for contaminants or deadly bacteria. Veterinary division specialists investigating the transmission of bird flu. and researchers who watched television ads for false allegations about prescription drugs.
In many areas of the FDA, no employee remains to process payroll, submit retirement or redundancies, and to help overseas inspectors at risk of agency credit cards. Even the Agency’s Library, where researchers and experts were based on subscriptions that have now been canceled, have been closed.
FDA’s new Commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, appeared for a long -awaited appearance at Maryland’s headquarters on Wednesday. He gave a speech that describes broad problems in the healthcare system, including increasing chronic diseases. Employees did not receive an official opportunity to ask questions.
About 3,500 FDA employees are expected to lose their jobs under the reductions. A representative of health and human services did not answer questions.
When Trump’s administration executed the first round of the FDA cuts in February, it broke teams of scientists who did the fine task of ensuring the safety of surgical robots and insulin -inspiring devices in children with diabetes. Some of the redundancies and cuts, described by former FDA officials as arbitrary, were quickly reversed.
Dr. David Kessler, a former White House Commissioner and Advisor to the reaction of a pandemic under President Biden, said the last round of layoffs had broken decades of critical experience and knowledge from the organization.
“I think it’s devastating, random, stupid and chaotic,” he said. “I think they need to be canceled.”
It remains uncertain whether some of the lost jobs will be restored by the administration. In interviews, 15 today and former members of the staff, some of whom talked about the condition of anonymity, fearing job loss or retaliation, described their redundancies and expected effects on nation’s food, drugs and medical supplies.
Weaker screens for food safety
The organization eliminated scientists in various product safety laboratories, including a laboratory near San Francisco that examined food. These cuts come in addition to the recent elimination of a basic food safety committee and reduced funding for government food inspectors.
San Francisco’s workshop routine controls for deadly bacteria in food to support inspections and research and had experience in detecting heavy metals and toxic elements. It also analyzes dyes and food additives – a priority of the new administration.
Another accident in the Food Department concerned almost all staff at the Political and International Coating Office. It shares data with other nations to start the outbreaks of diseases transmitted by foods found abroad before the products could reach the United States.
“If Canada has a great epidemic, will he notify the FDA and share this information?” Susan Mayne, a former FDA official and assistant Epidemiology Professor at Yale University, asked. “And if so, who would even alert even? Communication channels are broken.”
The International Food Office has also worked with the developed nations to share the Food Production Plant Inspection records-so that more federal dollars can explore food processors in developing countries. It remains unclear if one will receive the work of the divisions that have been closed.
Drugs review funding is risking
The FDA is largely funded by its regulations, including pharmaceuticals, medical appliances and tobacco. The fees of the industry, which represented about half of the budget of the Organization, are paid in accordance with the terms negotiating between the Agency and the industries. The agreements are monitored and approved by Congress.
Criticized by many, including Mr Kennedy, as a way for these industries to exert unjustified influence, the agreements do not oblige FDA staff reviewers to approve new medicines. However, staff reviewers must meet strict deadlines during the approval process.
These abrupt reductions could endanger the fees of hundreds of millions of dollars. Losses could lead to hitting a “trigger” in the law that would close the fees completely.
This could essentially let anyone review long applications for drug approval or allow new cancer drugs and rare diseases.
Although the Drug Industry Trade Union, PhRMA rejected an interview request, Alex Schriver, a senior vice -president of public affairs, said substantial changes to the FDA “raise questions about the body’s ability to fulfill its mission.
Supplementary issues are the members of the billing and account staff who managed the industry’s remuneration program and the officials who negotiated terms around the fees.
Fewer drug safety checks
Other decorated laboratories included one in Chicago, where scientists studied food packaging and how chemicals migrated to food.
Almost all staff members were fired at a Drug Security Laboratory in Detroit, which supported the work of the Office of the Service. They tried samples of drugs taken by installation inspectors that check to see if a factory was ready to open for mass production – or investigate a possible problem. Personnel members also analyzed products subject to consumer complaints.
“Lab scientists at FDA are very important for the organization’s fabric,” said Dr. Namandjé N. Bumpus, the Chief Deputy Commissioner who left the Agency in December.
Members of the staff who watched the safety and efficacy of drugs were also fired in a laboratory in San Juan, Puerto Rico, specializing in eye evaluation, nasal sprays and drugs administered with skin patch
Possible delays in cheaper, general drugs
Throughout the FDA, offices with the term “politics” in the title were addressed for eliminating. Although the project seems insignificant on paper, it was particularly important in the highly disputed world of generic drugs – which represent about 90 % of the drugs used in the United States.
Members of the staff at the General Policy Office on Drugs did the painful work of cosmos through the existing law, constantly changing judicial decisions and scientific data to determine which medicines could be approved as a generic or, in the case of biologically active treatments, active.)
Such approvals save consumers billions of dollars collectively. The redundancies of the General Policy Group could delay these savings.
John Murphy III, president of the Union for Accessible Drugs, which represents general drug manufacturers, said in a statement that he has argued efficiency efforts to take medicines to patients faster, but “many of the cuts said”.
Some work at the edges of bird flu
The staff at the director’s office at the Veterinary Center was rejected, bringing some work to respond to the bird flu. The office had studied how pasteurization kills bird flu in milk. He had also explored the transmission of bird flu from pet food to pets to pets and managing products of the products.
Scientists at the Veterinary Office have also helped the US agricultural department through proposals for the development of vaccines and therapies for poultry and animals aimed at combating virus and reducing egg prices.
Loss of observers for misleading drug advertising
Mr Kennedy has sharply criticized drug television ads. But his new redundancies fold the section that follows them for false or misleading claims. The office received complaints from the public and issued warning letters to companies that make problematic claims. Although drug companies have blocked staff cuts, this change could be regarded as a victory.
“Drug companies should love the FDA violation,” Adrian Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology at Georgetown Medical Center, told an email. “Trump’s administration destroys a critical public health organization.”
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