Obama requests more FDA, NIH funds

President Obama's FY11 budget request, submitted to Congress Monday, includes increases for FDA, NIH, and comparative effectiveness research. It assumes enactment of healthcare reform similar to legislation passed by the Senate, but does not provide details of costs or revenues.

The administration is requesting increases in FDA's budgets for regulating human drugs and biologics of $19 million and $8.6 million, respectively, which will allow the agency to hire 66 new full-time employees. Increases in PDUFA payments will support hiring an additional 56 employees for drugs and biologics. The request also includes $5.7 million to develop science and regulatory policies for biosimilars, and $25 million for regulatory science (See BioCentury, Dec. 21, 2009). ...