FDA creates task force to better communicate with public

The FDA this week announced that it has created a transparency task force to investigate how to better inform the public about its inner workings.

The task force will be chaired by Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, MD, and will include center directors, the associate commissioner for regulatory affairs and chief scientists.

“Implementation of the Transparency Task Force’s recommendations should make agency actions and decisions, and their underlying processes and bases, more transparent to the public,” Sharfstein in a press release.

The task force is part of a larger effort by the Obama administration to make all federal government agencies more open to the public, FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, said in the press release. The agency has come under fire in recent years for its food monitoring programs. The outbreaks of salmonella from peanut butter and other foodborne illness outbreaks in recent years have called the agency’s ability to monitor the nation’s food supply into question. Also, some have critiqued the agency’s decisions on revealing negative clinical trial data.

The agency has scheduled a series of public meetings, the first on June 24, where the public will be asked to comment on ways to make the agency more transparent. The deadline for public comment is Aug. 7.

In related news, FDA officials said yesterday they have awarded three one-year Food Safety and Security Monitoring grants totaling $1 million to the states of Arkansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin for enhancing its food and feed protection initiatives.