"Consensus is not our goal": A Conversation with FDA's Top Drug Reviewer

Drug companies aren't the only ones worried about the sinking rate of new drug approvals. Food & Drug Administration officials are equally concerned over the innovation drought. After all, the number of new drugs making it to market is at its lowest since 1983.

FDA's Office of New Drugs Director John Jenkins, who oversees all new drug applications within the drug center, is especially preoccupied with the lack of results from the drug development process. "We agree that it’s very disheartening that despite the rather massive expenditure of research dollars, we’re not seeing a growth in the number of NMEs submitted to the agency for review," Jenkins says of new molecular entities getting aproved by the agency. "We are seeing a continued growth in the number of new commercial INDs submitted, so there still seems to be a lot of innovation. It’s a question of how to get them out the other end of the pipeline."

Jenkins also addressed other issues ranging from drug safety to how FDA plans to prioritize implementing the new drug reform regulations under the FDA Amendments Act. In particular, he addressed the public disagreement between the drug review and drug safety groups during the Avandia advisory committee meeting last July.

"Consensus is not our goal," Jenkins says. "That strikes some people as odd when they first hear me say that, but I think that if you’re in a regulatory organization and people think that consensus is the goal, that leads to a subtle pressure to conform to the prevailing viewpoint even though you may not agree with the prevailing viewpoint and you may in fact be right."

You can read the whole interview in The RPM Report by clicking here. Free registration for non-subscribers is on the left side; subscribers should just log in.

I would love to hear your comments on Jenkins' views on FDA, drug companies and drug development.