FDA's Gottlieb Says Hiring Freeze Over

U.S. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb was in the spotlight while trying to defend President Donald Trump's budget plan and proposed billion-dollar user fee increase to the House Appropriations Subcommittee, according to a RAPS article. He also announced that the FDA is no longer part of the federal hiring freeze.

Gottlieb said he "wasn't involved in the formulation of the budget," as he's only been on the job for two weeks (after representatives criticized the budget proposal), and he offered several ideas FDA will try to use to increase competition and reduce prescription drug costs, RAPS reported.

Initiatives included: a drug competition action plan, a new list of all drugs that are off-patent with no current generic competition, and ways to reform the risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) regulations.

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