FDA Needs More Cell, Gene Therapy Mid Managers to Speed Reviews

The FDA is struggling to hire mid-level managers in cell and gene therapies as the agency looks to fill more than 100 slots in this burgeoning field and remedy slow responses to drugmakers.

“I am particularly focusing on—and perhaps the hardest to recruit—getting mid-level managers that are really very well-versed in gene therapy,” Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. “It’s a little easier at the very top and some of the entry level people.”

The growth of cell and gene therapy products comes as Marks’s center continues ...