Hamburg looks to restructure FDA for consistency
This article was originally published in The Silver Sheet
Executive Summary
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg says she wants to restructure the agency's front office to be more "internally consistent," according to a June 29 memo obtained by Elsevier Business Intelligence. "Various programs in the Office of the Commissioner are sited across that organization with little underlying rationale for their placement," the commissioner writes in a reorganization proposal to Health and Human Services leadership. The memo lays out a plan to streamline the development of the agency's budget, refine the chief scientist's mission and create new offices to fill gaps and bring related activities in closer contact. The proposal would not impact the structure or leadership of CDRH. The affected office with perhaps the most device-specific responsibilities is the Office of Combination Products, which would no longer report to the agency's chief scientist, but instead move to a new Office of Special Medical Programs focused exclusively on "cross-cutting medical programs.