The United States Food and Drug Administration is in charge of protecting the nation's health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of pharmaceuticals for humans and animals, biological goods, and medical devices, as well as the safety of our country's food supply, cosmetics, and radioactive materials.
The FDA is led by the Director of Food and Drugs, who is appointed by the President with Senate advise and consent. The Commissioner answers to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. As of February 17, 2022, Robert Califf is the current Commissioner.
The FDA contributes significantly to the country's capacity to combat terrorism. The FDA carries out this duty by safeguarding the safety of the food supply and encouraging the creation of drugs to address both intentional and unintentional risks to public health. It is also in charge of promoting public health by hastening the development of innovations that increase the efficacy, safety, and affordability of health goods and by enabling the general public obtain the precise, fact-based information required to use foods and medical items to sustain health. The White Oak area of Silver Spring, Maryland, is home to the FDA's headquarters.
The organization is spread out across all 50 states, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, with 223 field offices and 13 laboratories. The FDA started posting workers abroad in 2008, sending people to China, India, Costa Rica, Chile, Belgium, and the UK. Established The Food and Drugs Act, also referred to as the Wiley Act after scientist Harvey Washington Wiley, MD, was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906. Dr. Wiley, who is referred to as the father of the FDA, expressed his worry about chemical preservatives in food by labeling them as adulterants. Food adulteration and medicine misbranding were forbidden by the legislation, which the Bureau of Chemistry was tasked with enforcing.
In India, The principal FDA on-site presence in New Delhi, India is the Office of Global Policy and Strategy (OGPS) India Office (INO), which was established in November 2008. The INO's main goal is to guarantee the efficacy, safety, and quality of food and medical items that are exported to the US, in accordance with the FDA's purpose.
The India Office advances the FDA's mission to protect and promote public health by:
- Conducting commodity-specific inspections to meet FDA legislative mandates.
- Collaborating with regulatory authorities, industry, academia, multilateral organizations, not a government agency organizations, and other relevant institutions to better understand India's regulatory guidelines and share FDA science-based standards and specifications.
- Improving the FDA's understanding of Indian legislative requirements and the regulatory bodies' ability to supervise them; Indian businesses that produce or export goods under the FDA's control; and new developments and issues that are pertinent to the FDA in order to guarantee the quality and safety of products
- Improving data quality to support FDA regulatory decisions and actions.