Communications

The overall purpose of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of International Program’s (OIP) communications internationally is to effectively communicate FDA policy, regulatory decisions, and programs to counterpart government officials and international organizations around the world, to enhance cooperation with them on public health matters of mutual interest, and provide prompt, accurate, and effective responses to a wide range of requests for program, policy, and technical information.

OIP coordinates, organizes and conducts major international conferences, symposia, workshops, and embassy briefings in areas of specific Agency concern, including annual meetings with counterpart agencies.

OIP serves as the agency focal point on policies and procedures for sharing public and non-public information. In this regard, OIP is the primary agency liaison with other U.S. Government components, international and foreign governments (including Washington, D.C. embassies) in disseminating public and non-public information concerning international notifications of recalls in the United States of products that have been distributed abroad. As FDA becomes aware of distribution outside the U.S. of products recalled domestically, the FDA/OIP immediately provides information by e-mail to international regulatory counterparts about these products. These notifications are made directly to the senior executives of our counterpart food and medical product safety agencies, to technical counterparts, and/or to the embassy of the country involved.