Home Media Center News Releases

Today, in a nationwide conference with Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) employees, the Food and Drug Administration’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, Margaret Glavin, announced the decision by the Food and Drug Administration to abandon its planned ORA reorganization.

The decision to back away from this proposal—which included the closing of seven of its 13 laboratories across the country —is the right decision for the American people. It is unfortunate that NTEU had to bring this issue to the public’s attention and to seek the bipartisan assistance of a broad cross-section of Congress before the FDA would pay heed to the voices of its own employees regarding this ill-conceived and unsupported plan.

I hope the FDA will use the lessons learned in this episode to consider its field structure in the context of how best to serve the public interest. To that end, it is imperative that the agency now invest resources in all its laboratories to make them as efficient and effective as possible. The public health demands no less.