Federal regulators responsible for the safety of the US drug supply are still struggling to get back to where they were in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic upended factory inspections in the US and across the world. An AP analysis of Food and Drug Administration data shows that agency staffers haven't returned to roughly 2,000 pharmaceutical manufacturing firms to conduct surveillance inspections since before the pandemic, raising the risks of contamination and other issues in drugs used by millions of Americans.
- The firms that are overdue for safety and quality inspections represent about 42% of the 4,700 plants that are currently registered to produce drugs for the US and previously underwent FDA review before May 2019, the AP found. The plants make hundreds of critical medicines, including antibiotics, blood thinners, and cancer therapies.