HEALTH & BIOTECHNOLOGY

FDA Speeding Up Review Time for New Drugs: The government says it’s speeding up the process of getting new medicines on the market, approving drugs 21% faster last year than in 1993. The Food and Drug Administration has long been accused of approving new drugs too slowly and thus depriving Americans of lifesaving medications available in other countries. The FDA fought back in its annual report on drug approval, saying it cut review time for new medicines significantly in the past year. The FDA approved 85 new drugs and biological products last year, including 22 new “molecular entities,” drugs whose active ingredients have never been sold. The median approval time for the 62 new drugs was 19 months, 21% shorter than for drugs approved in 1993. The agency cut the approval time for 23 vaccines and other biological products, to 12.2 months last year from 23.4 months in 1993.