New Food and Drug Administration fees are concerning the pharmaceutical industry as the FDA requires Generic Drug User Fees of 175-thousand dollars on all domestic generic drug manufacturing companies. They are now required to pay the current fees by March 4th or face a facility shut down or a possible miss branding of certain products. The new healthcare law will affect Crown Laboratories in Johnson City who are in that category and have already instituted a hiring freeze to offset the additional cost. Companies have started having to prepare for changes that could come with only a 60 day notice and have already started to put back money for 2014. The fee’s could also increase with inflation and other factors so preparing a budget beyond twelve months is very difficult as the fee amounts are at the discretion of the FDA who could raise them at any time. (bg)