1,300 more officials for US FDA

The US Food and Drug Administration has announced details of a major hiring initiative to fill 1,300 positions within the next few months. John Dyer, the agency's Deputy Commissioner for Operations, said: "it takes a large pool of talented people for the FDA to protect and promote the public health."

For the 2008 fiscal year, the FDA intends to fill more than 700 vacant posts and an additional 600 new positions. The combined total would triple the hiring levels of 2005-2007 and come as a result of funding provisions laid out in the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (Marketletters passim) and the Import Safety Plan. Other legislative and administrative measures affecting food safety account for some of the funding.

A fast-track recruitment policy has been agreed with the Department Health and Human Services (which has responsibility for the FDA) Office of Personnel Management, so that some qualified candidates could be in place within three weeks, the agency noted. The timing of the FDA's move is a boost for medical and scientific graduates and coincides with fears of a recession and restructuring by several leading US pharmaceutical companies (Marketletters passim).