‘Overwhelmed, fatigued and upended’ – review diagnoses US CTP’s troubles

The US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (FDA CTP) is “reactive and overwhelmed”, staff are “fatigued”, the industry and public health advocates are “frustrated”, litigation has “upended” the CTP’s plans for performing its functions, and repeated changes of top personnel at the agency have also hindered its ability to act effectively.

These are among the problems identified in a report released last night by the Reagan-Udall Foundation, an independent nonprofit which works closely with the FDA and which was asked by FDA commissioner Robert Califf earlier this year to evaluate the CTP’s operations.