U.S. Food & Drug Administration is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The main responsibility of the USFDA is the protection of health by setting legal limits and enforcing the system of proper compliance by surveillance and monitoring. Agency mainly focuses on making rules and regulation effective and efficient by influencing the behavior of those being regulated, monitored and certified. Another important responsibility always at the top of the list of priorities is the product and equipment advancements and innovations. Nowadays, it is not that uncommon to come across a headline such as: “FDA Approves a New Way For Scientists to Use Gene Therapy” or “FDA is working on approval of the revolutionary CAR T-cell therapy for treating cancer”. Recently FDA had presented an Action Plan that Promotes Innovation to Make Medical Devices Much Safer.Their stated mission of keeping people healthy hasn’t changed from the day the Agency was founded more than a hundred years ago. The regulatory programs vary for different groups of products, they undergo extensive scrutiny before obtaining a USFDA certificate. Regulation accrues across all of the processes starting from research, testing, manufacturing and up to the marketing and labeling. The regulations accrue with the set of standards that are enforced by almost 10 000 employees of the Agency.FDA’s jurisdiction extends to the full oversight of a very extensive list of product groups.In general, they regulate the food supply, including cosmetics and dietary supplements, nutrition formula for infants, bottled water and much more. In the medical field, regulatory policies extend to all drugs, the vaccines are also supervised and, actually, a lot of biological products like blood, bone grafts, soft tissue grafts, etc. It is also fully responsible for the medical devices. This category includes a huge line of medical products starting from the simplest ones like a bedpan or an IV pole and stretches to the top of the line to the very complex cutting-edge technologies, like pacemakers or ultrasound therapy machines. List of medical devices is large and impressive and includes, though not limited to, the implant and prosthesis product groups, and the multi-billion dental industry, where it is responsible for imposing legal limits for everything from basic tweezers or a tongue holder to dental implants.
Then there is a huge category of the equipment and products that emit radiation. Again, in this swimmingly uncomplicated category, you’ll be able to see a cutting-edge x-ray machine and a basic household staple like a microwave oven or even a simple mercury lamp.
Agency also manages and monitors the tobacco products, covers all of the veterinary industry, including veterinary foods and drugs, plus its regulatory powers spread to the fabulous products of the cosmetics industry. So, anything and everything - from mascara to perfume or a bath bomb is in fact regulated.