Report: FDA chief to resign, leaving CBD review in question

Just as the CBD industry was hoping to start work next month on the cannabinoid’s place in food, drugs and cosmetics, the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief is resigning.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who told Congress last week that CBD can’t be added to consumer products, is leaving office in April, according to The Washington Post.

In February, Gottlieb told the House Appropriations Committee that the FDA would hold a public meeting about CBD in April.

An exact date for that meeting wasn’t announced, so Gottlieb’s apparent resignation leave hemp and CBD entrepreneurs in the dark about when a review might take place.

The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp and hemp-derived CBD from the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, but it also stipulated that the FDA would retain control over how hemp products, including CBD, could be added to food, drugs and cosmetics.

Gottlieb said in December that hemp’s new legal status makes CBD rules “even more important” and that CBD rules would be reviewed “in the near future.”

Several members of Congress pressed him to get going on the rules, leading to his promise to schedule hearings in April.