FDA's "Driving Biomedical Innovation: Initiatives for Improving Products for Patients ," addresses concerns about the sustainability of the medical product development pipeline, which is slowing down despite record investments in research and development.

"Our innovation blueprint highlights some of the initiatives FDA will be implementing to ensure that these opportunities are translated into safe and effective treatments that can help keep both American patients and American industry healthy and strong," says FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

The blueprint’s initiatives:

• Rebuilding FDA's small business outreach services.
• Building the infrastructure to drive and support personalized medicine.
• Creating a rapid drug development pathway for important targeted therapies.
• Harnessing the potential of data mining and information sharing while protecting patient privacy.
• Improving consistency and clarity in the medical device review process.
• Training the next generation of innovators.
• Streamlining and reforming FDA regulations.

Further details as well as a link to the blueprint can be found at "FDA commissioner outlines steps to spur biomedical innovation."