Ways the FDA Encourages Innovation
A Few More Sips: A resource for the many grants, programs, and vouchers the FDA offers — organized by what problem each one solves.
The FDA offers many different incentives for companies who are aiming to design drugs in spaces that they find high priority. Even though I work in the biotech space, the plethora of different programs, grants, and vouchers (and all the many abbreviations that come with them), felt overwhelming. It seemed as though there was so much overlap (of which there is but I try to clear up) and it was difficult to understand how they were different from one another, or when a sponsor would seek one over another.
Framework for FDA Encouraging Innovation
When I sat down and looked at the gathered list of FDA incentives, it felt most helpful to group them by function. What phase of the drug development cycle does it most play a role in advancing? What bottleneck in development is it designed to help address? I named the following five categories:
Advancing Research
Faster Development
Regulatory Flexibility
Faster Review
Economic Incentives
Below is a table putting the various FDA programs into each of the categories. Continue reading to find a comprehensive summary.
