Panel Says F.D.A. in Bad Shape

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel consisting of members of academia, industry, and government has investigated the current state of the F.D.A. and concluded that it is in such bad shape that they question whether it can perform its function.
The F.D.A. regulates most of the food, drugs, vaccines, medical equipment and devices in the country but over the years its budgets and staffing have not kept up with the ever increasing workload and that is causing problems. One big problem are its inspections of food makers. It inspects them on average once every ten years. In the past 35 years F.D.A. inspections have dropped by almost 80%. The total number of staff have gone from about 35,000 in the past to about 6,000 now due to constant budget cuts.The staff that does exist often lacks scientists and other experts who understand emerging technologies. It also has a big problem with its rate of turn over with its staff which is twice that of most other government agencies. The panels conclusions overall contained very little good news. Unless there is an increase in funding for the agency problems there are likely to worsen.