1,300 new hires planned for FDA expansion

The FDA is hiring some 1,300 badly-needed workers [1] to help with drug reviews and post-approval monitoring activities. Flush with fatter fees from drug developers, the agency says it will recruit biologists, chemists [2], pharmacologists and more to fill more than 700 new positions as well as 547 recruits for current vacancies. The FDA has been under increasing pressure to beef up its ranks to do a better job at providing timely regulatory oversight for new drugs as well as the safety of therapies already on the market.

The agency is betting that its strategic position at the crossroads of science, regulatory supervision and drug safety--to say nothing of a hefty package of federal benefits--will make it a competitive player in the job market. The FDA will go head to head with drug developers to fill many of these jobs, and that could have a buoyant effect on salaries in the industry.

"Each month, there is a delay in bringing critical staff on board impairs the agency's ability to fulfill this mission," John Dyer, the agency's deputy commissioner for operations and COO, said in a release.

- see the FDA's release [3]
- read the report [4] in USA Today 

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