STAT Plus: GAO finds ongoing problems with FDA inspections of foreign drug facilities
Amid rising concern over the quality of the pharmaceutical supply chain, a government report finds that the number of domestic and foreign plant inspections conducted by the Food and Drug Administration declined from 2016 through 2018, partly due to a dearth of available inspectors.
Specifically, domestic inspections decreased by 13% and foreign inspections fell by 13% during that two-year period, although the number of foreign inspections exceeded domestic inspections in 2015. But while the FDA had 190 inspectors in the U.S. who conducted most foreign inspections, another 58 positions were vacant, according to a preliminary analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
