Ed Silverman , 2025-07-07 13:13:00
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating, because that oh-so familiar routine of deadlines, online meetings, and phone calls has predictably returned. But what can you do? The world, such as it is, continues to spin. So time to give it a nudge in a better direction by brewing cups of stimulation. Our choice today is banana split; sweets for the sweet. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest to start you on your journey, which we hope is meaningful and productive. Best of luck, and do keep in touch. …
The steady erosion of experienced staff at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is slowly compromising agency work, and the situation could become more dire as low morale pushes more workers to the exits, STAT tells us. FDA employees are spooked by increasing political involvement in regulatory decisions, frustrated by the impact of cuts to administrative staff who supported drug reviews and inspections, and fed up with proclamations from the commissioner’s office that they contend rarely take career staff’s expertise into account. Three months after losing 3,500 employyes — 19% of the agency workforce — the FDA continues to bleed talent amid a government-wide hiring freeze that has lasted almost six months. The number of employees leaving is already starting to make the work of drug and device regulation more complicated. The agency has missed a handful of review target dates and conducting inspections in foreign countries is challenging with the loss of administrative staff who handled visa application processes.
The draft of a trade accord between the U.S. and Switzerland contains a provision that the European country will receive preferred treatment in the ongoing national-security investigations to avoid tariffs on pharmaceutical exports, Bloomberg News reports. The clause does not constitute a guarantee that Washington will hold off on putting tariffs on the industry considered vital by the Swiss. The wording is framed as a pledge for both parties to cooperate to avoid such a move via the so-called Section 232 probe. The draft also requires a nod from President Trump, while the Swiss government has already implicitly agreed. As soon as Trump signs off, formal approval from Bern is expected to happen very quickly. Switzerland is a major exporter of drugs to the U.S., with pharmaceuticals accounting for almost half of Swiss goods exports to America in 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Economics. For companies including Novartis and Roche, the U.S. is the most profitable market, as is the case for many producers of medicines.
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