The head of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the leading trade group for biotechnology and biopharmaceutical organizations in the US, called on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make room in its organizational structure for a Chief Innovation Office (CIO), reports The Boston Business Journal.

Speaking at the organization's annual meeting in Boston, BIO President and CEO James Greenwood said FDA has a duty to go beyond its mission to protect consumers from unsafe and ineffective products, reports The Boston Business Journal.

"People who die because a product is not approved quickly enough are just as dead as those who die because a product is not safe," Greenwood said. "It's not just the job of the FDA to protect us-it's also to promote innovation."

Greenwood said the CIO position could help bring products through FDA's review process faster by evaluating the agency's rates of rejection and studying that rate's effect on industry innovation, reports The Boston Business Journal.

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The Boston Business Journal - BIO chief Greenwood says FDA needs chief innovation officer