I don't think you understand how the process works.
The FDA's job isn't to hold your hand and get you into scientific research studies.
The FDA mandates certain steps -- the collection of certain data -- before it allows drugs to be marketed. Phase 1 is a safety study, Phase 2 is an efficacy study, and Phase 3 is a broader efficacy study. It is on the companies to collect this data; the FDA merely reviews it. (And then reddit-votes on which drugs to approve, with results that are sometimes funny, sometimes nakedly unethical e.g. flibanserin, and sometimes just ridiculous e.g. aducanumab.)
Having more FDA employees would not speed-up the process by much, as the data collection itself is the arduous bit, nor would it reduce expenses at all.
The best possible thing to do would be to simply get rid of Phases 2 & 3. That's how they did things until the early 1960s -- and, lest we forget, the 40s-60s were known as "the Golden Age" of drug development. Instead of increasingly onerous and expensive trials, allow drugs to be marketed once they're proven safe, and subject them to mandatory postmarketing surveillance.
Besides, that hard-won efficacy data is often interpreted (by the FDA!) in subjective and bizarre ways, so its value is not awfully high. It's not worth the price society is paying for it.
The FDA's job isn't to hold your hand and get you into scientific research studies.
The FDA mandates certain steps -- the collection of certain data -- before it allows drugs to be marketed. Phase 1 is a safety study, Phase 2 is an efficacy study, and Phase 3 is a broader efficacy study. It is on the companies to collect this data; the FDA merely reviews it. (And then reddit-votes on which drugs to approve, with results that are sometimes funny, sometimes nakedly unethical e.g. flibanserin, and sometimes just ridiculous e.g. aducanumab.)
Having more FDA employees would not speed-up the process by much, as the data collection itself is the arduous bit, nor would it reduce expenses at all.
The best possible thing to do would be to simply get rid of Phases 2 & 3. That's how they did things until the early 1960s -- and, lest we forget, the 40s-60s were known as "the Golden Age" of drug development. Instead of increasingly onerous and expensive trials, allow drugs to be marketed once they're proven safe, and subject them to mandatory postmarketing surveillance.
Besides, that hard-won efficacy data is often interpreted (by the FDA!) in subjective and bizarre ways, so its value is not awfully high. It's not worth the price society is paying for it.