NEWS RELEASE

Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman

Dingell, Stupak Comment on FDA Plan for
Overseas Inspections

Promise Continued Oversight

Washington, DC – Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, commented today on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) plans to station U.S. inspectors in the developing world to help improve the safety of food and medicines imported to the U.S. from abroad.

“The Committee has been calling on the FDA to consider opening permanent offices in these countries since last fall when our investigators returned from fact finding trips in China and India,” Dingell said. “As our nation’s supplies of food and pharmaceutical ingredients increasingly come from abroad, it only makes sense that the FDA maintain a permanent presence overseas to ensure food and drugs are adequately inspected before they reach our shores.”

“Today, the FDA inspects less than one percent of the food that our nation imports,” Stupak added. “Permanently stationing FDA inspectors in China and India is long overdue and an important step towards improving the safety of our nation’s food supply. I’m happy to see that the Commissioner has accepted this Committee’s recommendation to open offices in countries where we have seen explosive growth in food, drug, and medical device exports.”

The lawmakers also noted that they will be carefully monitoring how the FDA implements its proposal and, in particular, would question FDA Commissioner von Eschenbach about the proposal during the Committee’s FDA oversight hearing scheduled for next Tuesday.

“While I am pleased that Commissioner von Eschenbach has taken our advice to open FDA offices overseas, this is just one step in a long road towards improving food and drug safety,” Dingell added. “The devil is in the details as to how many offices the FDA will maintain abroad, what their functions will be and how it will be financed. We have not yet seen these details, but we will explore this issue when Commissioner von Eschenbach testifies before our Committee next Tuesday.”

The Committee launched an investigation into the safety of the nation’s food supply in January of last year and began an investigation of drug ingredients imported from abroad last summer. In August, the Committee dispatched teams of investigators to China and India to examine those countries’ mechanisms for ensuring the safety of food and pharmaceutical ingredients.

In October, based upon the staff’s trip abroad, the Committee released a report on food safety in China. Dingell and Stupak also wrote the FDA with recommendations for improving FDA’s oversight of foreign drug manufacturers. One of the key recommendations to come out of the Committee staff visits to China and India was that FDA permanently place inspectors in those countries.

October 12, 2007 letter

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