An early look at FDA trends

By Maureen Martino and Tracy Staton

It's never too early to identify trends, and what better place to look than the FDA? The environment at the world's premier regulatory agency can have a significant impact the U.S. as well as the world markets, so it's always wise to keep an eye on happenings at the FDA.

In that vein, here's an early look at four FDA trends we've identified so far this year. We'll see how these play out by the end of the year.

• Overseas oversight gets serious
• FDA finally gets long-awaited funds
• FDA rolls out Sentinel project
• Cholesterol drug approval standards get tough