Posted on 03/11/2020 3:30:07 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday halted nearly all inspections of overseas plants that ship drugs, medical devices and other consumer goods to the U.S., citing the global spread of the coronavirus.
The agency announced it will postpone most foreign inspections scheduled through April, because of federal guidelines prohibiting travel for government workers. Last month, it postponed most inspections in China.
The FDA is responsible for ensuring that food, drugs, cosmetics, medical supplies and other U.S. imports are produced in safe, sanitary conditions that meet quality standards. Last year, it conducted more than 3,100 foreign inspections, according to agency records.
But regulators have struggled for years to monitor increasingly far-flung supply chains, particularly those of the pharmaceutical industry.
More than 90% of the drugs prescribed in the U.S. are generics, and over time, most drugmakers have moved their manufacturing to Asia and other regions to take advantage of cheaper labor and materials.
The FDA’s oversight of foreign plants has come under renewed scrutiny since 2018, with dozens of recalls triggered by traces of cancer-causing chemicals found in medications for blood pressure and other common conditions.
In December, the Government Accountability Office reported that FDA’s foreign inspections have fallen 13% since since fiscal 2016, in part, due to staffing shortages.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Insanity
Impose an artificially low price on a good and you force manufacturers to cut corners, especially in highly regulated industries such as Pharma.
Its astronomically expensive to produce drugs in the US but China is super cheap because of lack of regs. So everything gets made in places China or India
Before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, I’d consider the source here.
Trust but verify.
Just F’n Great! I worked in the medical device industry and have been over in China to survey and monitor vendor activities. They lie through their teeth, and get away with everything when they think you are not watching. This is like a ticket to bore full speed ahead, with no oversight (minimal at best) to make un-inspected crap. We need to move critical pharma and medical devices back to the USA.
Read my link. It’s not quite a blank check, but, yeah, this sucks.
We need a Marshall Plan to get Big Pharma manufacturing here. STAT.
Like Congress passing a 8 plus billion dollar bill to give Trump the 2.5 billion he asked for. Dig into the details and you'll probably find that new artwork for the House of Representatives Nad Sack Bathing Lounge is critical to fighting the pandemic.
Well...THAT makes absolutely NO sense, at all.
Dumbass Government...
if true, that makes absolutely no sense.
What could possibly go wrong with relying on foreign manufacturing of a critical part of our health care system?
I never was a fan of foreign goods except German engineered tools and products.
Easy.
Don’t buy anything made in China these days.
Or ever.
This needs to stop.
Next to military hardware, our pharmas should NOT be reliant on foreign governments.
If anything goes wrong, Trump will be blamed. It should also happen that the fanny covering of the globalists should slip further, but I’m not holding my breath.
Upside down world.
Who allows a petential enemy to make their meds/medical supplies? Oh, we do.
But, as long as our Rxs are cheap....all that matters.
🙃
(Oh, and now we hear that there is a shortage of chemicals needed for virus testing kits. Geez.)
If anything goes wrong, Trump will be blamed.
==
Whatever happened with this? ...
Trump vows to bring drug production back to US
12-Jan-2017 By Gareth Macdonald
President elect Donald Trump has said he will bring drug manufacturing back to the US and introduce bidding measures to cut the amount the country spends on medicines.
I know. But you can bet that the travel bans will be banned by our astoundingly myopic “betters.”
Trump is the guy who bravely jumped into the breach to try to prevent this and other disasters, but the globalists are in full butt covering mode, as are their sycophants.
Dems have a Bill ready to pass that will undo any travel bans that are in place.
These people are sick and evil.
But, we know that, already.
Things like that take years to happen—especially when globalists control the House and Senate.
Trump fights for us, by himself.
Things like that take years to happen—especially when globalists control the House and Senate.
Trump fights for us, by himself.
==
Oh, I completely understand that.
The unusual thing to me, though, is that he’s not even mentioned this, during this virus crisis.
POTUS Trump typically tweets/mentions/talks about what he wants to get done...but, that the globalist/Dems aren’t allowing to happen.
He could be using their ‘never let a crisis go to waste’ tactic, against them...and, alerting the US public about this YUGE drug manufacturing problem, and that Dems won’t help to bring back our precious drug mftg.
I haven’t heard this mentioned, by him, during this outbreak.
I’ve tried to listen to every CV presser.
Maybe I’ve missed it.
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