The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has been a consistent check on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) attempts to extend its authority. Now, it seems that the federal courts in New York are becoming a favorite venue to force the FDA to use its authority. The latest of these is an order from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Natural Resources Defense Council v. United States Food and Drug Administration (NRDC v. FDA), that requires the FDA to reissue a notice of withdrawal of approval for the subtherapeutic use of the antibiotics penicillin and tetracycline in food animals, and to hold hearings for the relevant drug sponsors as part of mandatory withdrawal proceedings.
Citation
Margaret Foster Riley, FDA Regulation of Antibiotic Use in Agricultural Animals, Jurist (May 26, 2012).