White House Releases Documents to Modernize Biotechnology Products

In continuing the Administration’s effort of modernizing the federal regulatory system, the White House posted a blog last Friday (September 16, 2016) featuring two documents which served to clarify the roles of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the evaluation new biotechnologies.

Included in the blog post was a proposed Update to the Coordinated Framework which provides an overview of the three agencies listed above and their responsibilities in evaluating new biotechnologies.

The National Strategy for Modernizing the Regulatory System for Biotechnology Products is also available on the post. This strategy provides an overview of the vision which the agencies have to ensure adequate measures are taken to assess possible risk factors (if any) associated with biotechnologies while simultaneously encouraging innovation, protecting the environment and human health, reducing costs, and maintaining transparency.