FDA to close seven field labs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to close 7 of 13 field labs that test food and drugs for compliance with FDA safety standards. FDA employees were notified yesterday (February 27) of the closures, which are part of an effort to restructure the agency's Office of Regulatory Affairs.

As predicted by FDA insiders, labs located in Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and Winchester (Massachusetts) will close. Facilities in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Jefferson (Arkansas), Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle will remain open.

According to the FDA, all of the closing labs are older facilities that need costly renovations, or can't accommodate an expansion. In a letter to Senator Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, FDA head Andrew von Eschenbach wrote that bringing scientists together in more centralized locations will let them "work more closely together and improve collaboration and synergy." The cost savings will enable the agency to invest in state-of-the-art equipment and processes, and the consolidated six labs will "exceed the capacity of testing conducted in the remaining 13 labs."

About 250 employees currently work in the facilities scheduled to close, and all will have the option of relocating to one of the remaining labs, FDA spokesperson Doug Arbesfeld told The Scientist. In cases where employees choose not to move, he said, "we'll attempt to find them another job with the FDA in their area, if possible. If not, we'll offer career counseling or training."

The consolidation is planned to begin in October 2007 and will take place over a two-year period, according to Arbesfeld. "This is just a proposal," Arbesfeld noted. And though the proposal does not need approval to move forward, he said, Congress may offer recommendations. Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the group that first revealed that the FDA was planning to close many labs, said he was encouraged that no closures were planned until late this year. That will give Congress time to review the proposal before finalizing the FDA's 2008 budget, and budget considerations could impact the consolidation plan, he told The Scientist. "That's certainly a big relief."

Cynthia Evitt, president of the Health and Human Services Southwest chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents FDA employees, told The Scientist that many employees were relieved to hear details of the plan after months of listening to rumors. Still the NTEU has criticized the proposal, and Evitt said the NTEU plans to begin bargaining with the agency over the impact and implementation of the consolidation.

Critics of the plan have suggested that closing labs will increase the time it takes to ship and test food and drug samples in an emergency. "We don't think that's an accurate assessment," Arbesfeld countered. He noted that the labs already "make great use of overnight delivery" for samples, and will continue to do so. The FDA expects to maintain the volume of samples it tests, he said. Given that the consolidation will modernize the labs and make them more efficient, he said, they expect to be capable of increasing testing volume in the future.

According to Arbesfeld, some 40 percent of the total square footage in the labs is currently being underutilized. Some of the labs slated to close are leased rather than owned, and many are in need of major renovation. "All of the equipment, and the people who want to, will be moved," he said. "It's really about modernization and efficient use of our lab space."

Kirsten Weir
mail@the-scientist.com

Links within this article:

Letter to Sen. Edward Kennedy outlining FDA plan, February 26, 2007
http://www.nteu.org/Documents/fdares.pdf

T. Agres, "The future of the FDA," The Scientist, December, 2006.
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/36885

K. Weir, "FDA to announce lab closure details," The Scientist, February 23, 2007.
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/52876

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
http://www.peer.org/

National Treasury Employees Union
http://www.nteu.org