FDA's Influential Science Board Seeks New Members
US regulators are calling for new nominees to serve on the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Science Board, an advisory committee charged with providing advice to the agency regarding science and technology issues impacting public health.
The board has been highly influential on FDA in recent years. A landmark report issued by the committee in 2007 noted serious scientific deficiencies at the agency, and led to systematic changes meant to address the concerns. More recently, the Science Board has been considering measures related to "data liberation" and the establishment of a new subcommittee to evaluate FDA's progress in making changes pursuant to its 2007 report.
In a 31 January 2014 Federal Register announcement, FDA explains that the board is looking for those knowledgeable in a variety of fields, including:
- food science, safety, and nutrition
- chemistry; pharmacology
- translational and clinical medicine and research
- toxicology
- biostatistics
- medical devices
- imaging; robotics
- cell and tissue based products
- regenerative medicine
- public health and epidemiology
- international health and regulation
- product safety
- product manufacturing sciences and quality
- other scientific areas relevant to FDA-regulated products such as systems biology, informatics, nanotechnology, combination products and relevant areas of behavioral and social science
FDA's goal is to have experts from industry and academia well-represented on the committee, along with some well-qualified federal experts, it said.
The agency did not specify the number of openings on the committee in the Federal Register notice, but a review of the Science Board roster by Regulatory Focus found that there are currently four vacancies, and the terms of five members end on 31 December 2014. The terms of an additional two members ended in December 2013.
Nominations to the committee are due by 3 March 2014. Applicants also will be among the first to use FDA's new advisory committee electronic submission system.