The FDA is asking for $4.9 billion in the next fiscal year, a 9% annual hike that would help fund a broad expansion of the agency as it works to modernize. Commissioner Margaret Hamburg is asking for a $33.2 million increase in funding to the FDA's medical products division, highlighting the need for new technologies to help the agency vet molecularly targeted treatments and new diagnostics, part of its role in President Barack Obama's proposed Precision Medicine Initiative. The agency also needs to staff up, Hamburg said, plotting to hire more scientists, doctors, analysts and inspectors in an effort to increase its payroll by 70% over fiscal 2008. More