Delia A. Deschaine, Member of the Firm, and Megan Robertson, Associate, in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, were featured in Law.com’s weekly cannabis-focused newsletter Higher Law, in “What’s Next: CBD, the FDA, and the White House,” by Cheryl Miller.
Following is an excerpt:
Welcome back to Higher Law, our weekly briefing on all things cannabis. …
This week we’re looking at: Crystal-balling the FDA and CBD …
What’s Next: CBD, the FDA and the White House OMB
I had a chance this week to check out a recent podcast featuring attorneys with Epstein Becker Green talking about the ongoing—some would say maddening—issue of regulating CBD.
While the FDA held a public meeting in May 2019 to consider possible rule-making, the future of CBD regs remains a bit unclear.
“So now the question, not only from industry when it comes from the manufacturers of products and researchers but also consumers who have questions about these products and their regulation is when and how will FDA follow through, which I know part of that is looking into a crystal ball and best-guess work there but we do know some things,” said Epstein Becker associate Megan Robertson.
Robertson noted that the FDA recently sent a CBD enforcement policy to the White House Office for Management and Budget for review.
“I predict that FDA’s CBD enforcement discretion guidance, if it’s approved by OMB, may in fact be a short-term fix to the challenge that FDA is facing in both addressing the proliferation of CBD conventional foods and dietary supplements in the marketplace and preserving incentives for developing drug products that contain cannabinoids or other natural substances,” said partner Delia Deschaine
“Although this wouldn’t be a cure-all for the issues that are facing the consumer product industry it may provide some comfort to businesses that operate in this space as well as their lenders and investors,’ Deschaine said.
Related listening:
Ms. Deschaine and Ms. Robertson dive into the status of the Food and Drug Administration’s plan for regulating cannabis and cannabis-derived products and what actions the agency has taken recently in Epstein Becker Green’s Diagnosing Health Care podcast “Holding Pattern: Cannabis Industry Waits for FDA Regulatory Rulemaking.”
