THE HISTORY OF FDA REGULATION OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide a chronological history of the significant events and influences that have shaped the regulation of biotechnology by the Federal Food and Drug Administration. This paper first chronicles the evolution of each of the separate fields of regulation into which biological products are categorized by the FDA (drugs, biologics, devices, and foods). Part III of this paper then discusses the first call for governmental regulation of biotechnology and the struggle for regulatory form that this shift in administrative authority created. Part IV describes the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology. Part V discusses subsequent efforts, both Congressional and administrative, to reform the regulation of biotechnology by FDA.