The New York Times reports that “the pandemic has forced the Food and Drug Administration to postpone hundreds of drug company inspections, creating an enormous backlog that is delaying new drug approvals and leading the industry to warn of impending shortages of existing medicines.” Amid travel restrictions and safety concerns, “the F.D.A.’s ability to ensure the safety of the ever-increasing number of imported medicines” has also been hampered. The agency “conducted 52 inspections of domestic pharmaceutical plants from March 2020,” compared with 400 in 2019, according to data from the Government Accountability Office, with foreign inspections “at a virtual standstill.” Some “in both industry and public health communities say that federal drug inspections are essential and that the agency should bypass travel restrictions.”

From the news release of the American Association for Justice.