WASHINGTON — As the medical device and pharmaceutical industries develop and hone new technologies, the process for regulating those technologies and products needs to keep pace, Food & Drug Administration commissioner Margaret Hamburg said earlier today at the National Health Policy Conference here.

“Just as biomedical and life sciences research has evolved in the past decade, regulatory science … must also evolve,” Hamburg said.

Speaking before a crowd of about 200 people who braved the approximately two-and-a-half feet of snow that blanketed the Washington region over the weekend, Hamburg said the FDA needs to streamline regulatory procedures, which have not kept pace with innovations throughout the life sciences industry.