The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation (H.R. 5651) on May 30, 2012, that, among other things, would revise and extend the user fees that industry pays the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite safety reviews of new medicines and medical devices.
The U.S. Senate earlier approved its version of the FDA funding bill, which must be reconciled by both chambers before the current version expires in September. The fees, first enacted in 1992, must be renewed every five years. According to a news source, the legislation could raise user fees by more than $2 billion from the previous five-year period, with the fees equaling nearly half of FDA’s proposed $4.5-billion budget next year. See Reuters and Bloomberg, May 31, 2012.
