83% of the FDAs user fee income in 2024 came from the fucking tobacco industry!

In a filing sent to an appeals court on Wednesday, an attorney for the Department of Justice (DOJ) suggested that premium cigar companies have paid more than $100 million to the FDA in user fees.

The user fee system is somewhat complicated, mainly because it is set by Congress and not by FDA itself. The total amount of user fees is set each year—for FY2024, it is $712 million—which is divided up between various tobacco segments. The exact amounts are based on the percentage of each product class—cigarettes, cigars, etc.—paid in excise taxes during the previous year and then divided amongst the various companies making said products. The exact amount a company owes is based on how many products that company imported in the previous year. The user fees themselves are paid quarterly.

Cigarettes—still the dominant tobacco product category—account for more than 83 percent of user fees in FY2024, around $148.7 million per quarter. The cigar category—which includes both premium and mass market cigars—is projected to pay $25.5 million per quarter.

https://halfwheel.com/court-filings-indicate-premium-cigar-companies-have-paid-more-than-100-million-in-user-fees/442966/

The Prescription Drug User Fee Act was passed in 1992 and allows the FDA to collect fees from drug companies seeking approval of products.

The fees provide funding that helps the agency speed the review and approval process, the FDA said.

"Speed" the review and approval, eh?

Spokespersons for Pfizer and the FDA confirmed the payment was for the fee required under the law.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/05/tweets/pfizer-did-not-bribe-fda-approval-its-covid-19-vac/

Legal bribes are still bribes, and I had NO idea that the FDA was basically suckling off the tobacco industry teat. 83% of their user fees, FFS