FDA Commissioner: ‘I Wish The Taxpayer Would Pay For The FDA’

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf would prefer a fully taxpayer-funded FDA over direct appropriations supplemented with funding from pharmaceutical and device industry user fees, noting at a recent National Press Club event that the agency needs to “justify” how it spends money to those “paying the bills.” Major consumer health advocacy groups like Public Citizen have long alleged FDA’s reliance on user fees gives regulated industry undue influence on agency policies. “We have user fees, which I've always said that philosophically,...