The FDA is moving to scale back its long-standing use of expert panels to review drug applications, KFF Health News reported Sept. 12.
George Tidmarsh, MD, PhD, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the agency would prefer to move away from convening advisory committees for individual drug approvals, calling them “redundant” and burdensome for regulators and drugmakers.
However, many former FDA officials, academic leaders and public health advocates disagree, saying advisory meetings offer irreplaceable value in informing agency decisions and offer the public a window into internal deliberations.
Dr. Tidmarsh’s reasoning is “hard to follow,” former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, told KFF Health News. “It’s extremely useful for people inside [the] FDA to find out what other experts think before they make their final decisions. And it’s important to do that in a way that enables the public to understand the points of view.”
The FDA’s advisory committees, formalized by a 1972 law, have long served as a check on agency decisions, especially for controversial or high-demand drug approvals. Under Commissioner Marty Makary, MD, the FDA has largely reduced advisory committee meetings, with only seven held in 2025, compared to 22 in the same period in 2024.
