HHS and EPA Sign Memorandum to Jointly Review Glyphosate Science Ahead of 2027 Risk Assessment
23 September 2026, Washington, D.C.: The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on September 22, 2026, that the two agencies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to coordinate scientific work on glyphosate, the active ingredient behind the world’s most widely used herbicide. The agreement creates a Joint Technical Working Group that will feed into EPA’s ongoing registration review of the chemical, with an updated human health risk assessment now targeted for completion in early 2027.
Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), EPA is required to reexamine every registered pesticide on a recurring 15 year cycle. Glyphosate, first registered in the United States in 1974 and sold widely under brand names including Bayer’s Roundup, has been under an extended registration review for several years amid ongoing litigation and public debate over its cancer risk classification. The new MOU does not change who makes the final registration decision. EPA retains sole authority under FIFRA to decide whether, and under what conditions, glyphosate stays on the market.
What the working group will do
The Joint Technical Working Group brings together EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs with several HHS components, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Toxicology Program, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. According to the announcement, the group will exchange scientific information and identify research gaps across four areas: toxicology, occupational epidemiology, exposure and biomonitoring, and dietary exposure. Working materials produced by the group will be published on a rolling basis in EPA’s public docket, numbered EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Americans “have a right to know what the best science tells us” about the chemicals they encounter in food, workplaces and the environment, framing the partnership as part of a broader push for transparency in chemical safety decisions. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency’s FIFRA mandate requires it to reexamine registered pesticides “against the best available science,” and described the HHS partnership as a way to strengthen the scientific base behind that review.
Comment period closes this week
The MOU lands in the middle of an active public comment period tied to the same registration review. EPA published a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register on August 25, 2026, opening its open literature search for glyphosate’s human health hazard assessment to public comment. That comment period, filed under the same docket number as the new working group, closes on September 24, 2026. EPA has asked commenters to identify any relevant, peer reviewed studies not already captured in its systematic literature search and to provide full citations with open access to the underlying papers.
The timing suggests EPA is trying to lock down the scientific record before the interagency working group’s output starts feeding into the assessment. The August notice tied to the same review indicated a completion target of late 2026, while the September 22 announcement points to early 2027, suggesting the timeline has slipped by a few months as the science coordination work ramps up.
Why it matters to global agribusiness
Glyphosate is a foundational input for no-till and conservation tillage systems across North and South America, and its regulatory status in the United States is closely watched by growers, formulators and generic manufacturers worldwide, particularly in China and India where technical grade glyphosate manufacturing capacity is concentrated. Any shift in EPA’s risk findings, whether toward tighter use restrictions or continued registration on current terms, will influence raw material demand, litigation exposure for registrants, and the competitive position of glyphosate relative to newer herbicide chemistries and non-chemical weed control technologies. A delay in the assessment timeline, as this announcement suggests, extends the period of regulatory uncertainty that has already weighed on glyphosate producers and downstream formulators for several years.
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