Republicans pressure FDA on foreign inspections, threaten subpoena 

House Re­pub­li­cans have threat­ened the FDA with a sub­poe­na, say­ing the agency failed to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion on for­eign drug in­spec­tions.

“The US can­not af­ford ad­di­tion­al dis­rup­tions to the drug sup­ply chain that re­duce the avail­abil­i­ty of es­sen­tial med­ica­tions,” they wrote in a six-page let­ter ad­dressed to FDA com­mis­sion­er Robert Califf on Thurs­day.

Back in Ju­ly, the Com­mit­tee on En­er­gy and Com­merce re­quest­ed doc­u­ments from the FDA about its in­spec­tions of for­eign man­u­fac­tur­ers, cit­ing con­cern over drug short­ages in the US this year. The com­mit­tee has not re­ceived a re­sponse. A short­age of the can­cer drug cis­platin led the FDA to al­low im­ports of gener­ic can­cer drugs from In­dia and Chi­na.

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