On June 20, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of its founding law, the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. The enactment of the 1906 law transformed FDA into a scientific regulatory agency, making it the oldest consumer protection agency in the nation.

The Centennial year is one during which FDA and the entire country can take pride in and reflect on the richness of FDA’s history.

FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) regulates the manufacture and distribution of food additives and drugs that will be given to animals. These include animals from which human foods are derived, as well as food additives and drugs for pet (or companion) animals.

In the last 25 years, several significant measures have gone into effect that make CVM more effective in protecting human and animal health:

• In October 1996, the Animal Drug Availability Act gave new flexibility to CVM to regulate animal drugs and medicated feeds.

• In November 1996, the rules published under the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act gave veterinarians flexibility to treat animals with extralabel (uses not specified on the label) prescriptions of certain approved animal and human drugs.

• In August 1997, CVM implemented a rule to prevent the spread of BSE, also known as “mad cow” disease.

• In October 2003, CVM announced a regulatory pathway [Michelle: maybe this should be highlighted and linked to GFI 152 instead of the word antimicrobial] it had developed that sponsors could use to seek approval of antimicrobial (pdf) drugs while ensuring use of the drugs would not create resistant bacteria harmful to public health.

• In November 2003, the Animal Drug User Fee Act authorized FDA to collect fees on animal drugs to support CVM’s responsibilities to ensure that new animal drug products are safe and effective, and any food from animals treated with those drugs is safe for human consumption.

• In August 2004, the Minor Use/Minor Species Animal Health Act offered help to pharmaceutical companies to provide limited-demand animal drugs. It means more medications will be legally available to veterinarians and animal owners to treat minor animal species, such as zoo animals, and uncommon diseases in the major animal species. CVM will write and implement those rules.

CVM is planning Centennial-related events and special publications such as:

• June 2005: CVM published its Centennial Edition of FDA and the Veterinarian

• February 2006: CVM will publish its Centennial Edition of the 2005 Annual Report

• September 2006: CVM Centennial Celebration Picnic

• June 2006: CVM Awards Ceremony

• September 2006: FDA/CVM and Potomac Peddlars Touring Company present a Historic Back Roads Tour which is a 100-mile bike ride and health fair in Berryville, VA in honor of FDA’s 100 years

We hope you will take an active role in supporting this commemoration and celebrating FDA’s rich past and promising future in Protecting and Promoting Public Health.