FDA officials report hiring is underway
2.200 set to be add after major cuts last year [2025]
By: Deena Beasley
Reuters
..... The U.S. Food and Drug administration, which cut more than 3,000 employees last year, [2025] has been authorized to hire 2,200 people, Lowell Zeta, acting chief of staff for the FDA commissioner, said on June 23 [2026] at the BIO International Convention in San Diego.
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The cuts were part of efforts by Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reshape federal public helaht agencies. Former FDA officials warned last year [2025] that the job reductions could disrupt the agency's ability to review applications for new medicines. Some staffers said they were struggling to meet deadlines mandated by Congress due to the layoffs.
..... "We are going to bring back 2,200, to start," Zeta said.
..... He said around 600 new employees are in the process of on-boarding and a couple hundred have started new jobs.
..... The hiring spree comes as the agency said it will use a more flexible approach to manufacturing of cell and gene therapies and announced a new plan to speed early drug development, The FDA has also agreed to reassess several drug s for rare diseases that it had previously declined to approve.
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Former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned from the post in May [2026] after weeks of clashing with top White House and helaht advisers and drawing scrutiny for a series of controversial agency decisions.
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"We are seeing very significant numbers applying," said Karim Mikhail, acting director of the FDA's Center for Biologies Evaluation and Research.
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He said the agency is also taking actions meant to stop current employees from leaving their jobs. "There is a lot of effort to minimize attrition," he said.
..... In some cases, Mikhail said, staffers are being temporarily transferred from one department to another whether the workload may be higher.
..... Michael Davis, acting director at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and other FDA officials said more work is being done to include patient need sin the drug review process, particularly for conditions with very small patient populations.
..... "Rare disease is an unmet need," Zeta said. "I think that is a big focus."