FDA hiring drive to add 2,000 staff stalls due to overwhelmed HR center

The Food and Drug Administration says it plans to bring on more than 2,000 new employees, a move aimed at rebuilding staff after the 2025 cuts that eliminated about 3,500 positions.

Agency officials, including Karim Mikhail of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, have publicly highlighted the hiring effort at industry conferences and on social media, sharing photos of recent hires.

However, the FDA’s human‑resources office is struggling to process the influx of applications, creating bureaucratic delays that are slowing the recruitment timeline.

The hiring bottleneck underscores the lingering impact of the earlier workforce reductions, even as the agency works to restore its staffing levels.

Industry observers note that a fully staffed FDA is critical for timely drug reviews, making the HR slowdown a concern for pharmaceutical companies and investors alike.