Biotech experts want FDA drug reviews based on science, not politics

MARYLAND, July 23 (Reuters): Biotech experts and industry executives are calling plans by the US Food and Drug Administration-hit by job cuts last year-to hire thousands of employees and update clinical-trial standards encouragingly, but want assurance that politics will not interfere in the agency's drug-review process.

"Regulatory predictability is ultimately what keeps promising science from being abandoned before it reaches patients," said John Guy, policy director at the Incubate Coalition, a venture capital advocacy group.

"The agency's current priority should be rebuilding durable scientific expertise."

Under Robert F Kennedy Jr, President Donald Trump's health secretary, the FDA has lost more than 3,000 employees, including key division heads, through cuts and departures.