The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has unveiled a global strategy that it hopes will ensure the future safety and quality of imported products into the country.
The FDA’s ‘Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality’ report, published yesterday (20 June), aims to meet the challenges posed by rapidly rising imports into the US and what it describes as “a complex global supply chain”. The strategy calls for the agency to transform the way it conducts business and to “act globally” to protect the health of US consumers.
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The growth in imports has been rapid, the report noted, and is expected to accelerate further. A decade ago, 6m shipments of FDA-regulated goods passed through the US’s 300 ports. This year, the number is estimated to grow to 24m shipments. Between 2007 and 2015, it is estimated that imports of FDA-regulated products will triple.
As a result, the FDA has highlighted four key elements needed to improve how it monitors the supply chain. These include forming “global coalitions of regulators”, the FDA said, and developing international data information systems and networks within these coalitions.
The FDA also wants to build its information gathering and analysis capabilities with a focus on risk analytics, as well as leverage the efforts of public and private third-parties to allocate its resources based on risk.
“Global production of FDA-regulated goods has exploded over the past ten years,” said FDA commissioner of food and drugs Dr. Margaret Hamburg. “In addition to an increase in imported finished products, manufacturers increasingly use imported materials and ingredients in their US production facilities, making the distinction between domestic and imported products obsolete.
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By GlobalDataShe added: “There has been a perfect storm – more products, more manufacturers, more countries and more access. A dramatic change in strategy must be implemented.”
No date has been set for the implementation of the strategy, but trends are expected to be seen worldwide “in upcoming years”, the report notes.
Click here to view the full report.
