US GPhA calls on House Appropriations Committee to protect funding for FDA; welcomes Solicitor General's action

The USA’s Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) has written to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (Republican, Kentucky.) and Ranking Member Norm Dicks (Democrat, Washington) expressing concern with the $285 million in proposed cuts to the Food and Drug Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget.

It says that the GPhA and its members recognize that government spending and health care costs are out of control and that the Committee is operating under a tight budgetary framework. However, deeps cuts in FDA’s budget could encumber the timely approval of generic medicines, which have proven to provide savings for the federal government and the health care system as a whole.

“This reduction in funding could hinder the ability of FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) to ensure timely access to safe and affordable generic medicines,” GPhA executive director Bob Billings wrote in the letter. “Therefore, GPhA respectfully requests that the Committee maintain FDA’s budget at $2.457 billion and OGD’s budget at $51.545 million,” he added.