Acting officials say around 600 new employees are in the onboarding process, with hiring picking up pace in recent weeks
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Authorization to bring on 2,200 new workers marks the FDA's most concrete step yet toward rebuilding after shedding more than 3,000 positions over the past year. Acting Chief of Staff and Deputy Commissioner Lowell Zeta made the announcement Tuesday at the BIO International Convention in San Diego.
Zeta told Biospace that progress is already underway, with several hundred candidates clearing onboarding steps and a couple hundred having reported for duty. "We are going to bring back 2,200, to start," he said, adding that the agency is also open to rehiring some of those who departed.
After a prolonged sluggish stretch, the pace of bringing people on board has accelerated noticeably. Evidence of the turnaround shows up in the headcounts at the FDA's bimonthly orientation sessions, which Acting CDER Director Michael Davis said have drawn several dozen new employees apiece over the last three pay cycles. "I can't remember the exact numbers, but [it's] within the historical norms for bringing on new people, and I see that as a positive sign that hiring is moving forward," Davis said.
The FDA's own net hiring data shows the scale of the losses the agency is trying to reverse. The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research ended fiscal year 2025 with 4,951 employees, down from 6,044 at the start of the year — a net loss of 1,093. The Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research fell from 1,373 to 1,149 over the same period, a net loss of 224. Through the first half of fiscal year 2026, both centers have continued to shed employees overall, with CDER at 4,869 and CBER at 1,101 as of March 31.
Alongside the push to hire, agency leaders say they are focused on keeping the staff they have. Acting CBER Director Karim Mikhail said attrition is a central concern. "Yes, we're hiring, but if we're losing at the same pace of hiring for whatever reason, because people are dissatisfied with what they do, then it's not working," Mikhail said. Rather than waiting for departures to happen, Mikhail said agency leaders are reaching out one-on-one to anyone weighing an exit, framing those conversations around what it would take to keep the person rather than simply documenting their reasons for leaving.
Davis said attrition at CDER has returned to historical norms and that morale has improved. "I do feel that things are moving in the right direction," he said, according to Reuters.
The hiring push is part of a broader effort by the agency's interim leadership to stabilize operations. The FDA has announced a series of measures to accelerate drug development, including a pilot program to shorten the time from drug identification to first-in-human studies and updated guidance for early-stage trial submissions.
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