Last week, the White House issued an executive memorandum that will require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update their strategy for regulating biotechnology products.
According to Agri-Pulse, the memo initiated the process for these three federal agencies to modernize the regulatory system and establish periodic updates of the system to ensure public confidence in the regulatory process.
The White House said it views the current regulatory system as successful in protecting health and the environment. But in some cases, unnecessary costs and burdens associated with uncertainty about agency jurisdiction, lack of predictability of timeframes for review and other processes have arisen.