Former FDA Drug Chief Warns About Focus on Speed in Voucher Plan

An FDA program that seeks to expedite drug reviews for companies in line with the Trump administration’s priorities should focus on efficiency in evaluations, not speed, the agency’s former drug head said Thursday.

“This voucher program has an emphasis on speed, which I think is a very sophomoric aim at aspiration,” said Richard Pazdur, who briefly served last year as the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “It should be about efficiency.”

“You have to understand the process because it’s not just saying we’re going to approve drugs in two months or three ...