The increased oversight that was baked into the recently enacted FDA Amendments Act comes with a price. For those who didn’t track this topic, this is the tab for an ad submitted voluntarily for review, and the price is set for fiscal year 2008, according to the latest Federal Register notice.

How did the FDA arrive at this figure? The revenue to be generated by review fees is $6.25 million, which was divided by 151, the number of TV ads that companies indicated previously they would submit for review. A drugmaker must also pay a one-time operating reserve fee, which is based on the number of submissions in its first year in the program. So if a company plans to submit two ads for review, there would be fee of $41,390 for each ad, plus a one-time operating reserve fee of $82,780. To watch for violations, distortions and oversights, the FDA plans to add 27 employees.

Before anyone complains that this sounds like a lot of money, consider how much was spent to run an ad during popular TV programming in the 2006-07 season. Ad spots during ‘Desperate Housewives’ cost $394,000, while ‘60 Minutes’ charged $118,000 and ‘Wife Swap’ was a mere $99,000, according to Advertising Age. (For more comparisons, please look here). Maybe the FDA should charge more.

Hat tip to FDA Law Blog