Most U.S. citizens do not realize that the number of drugs manufactured outside the United States doubled between 2001 and 2008. Currently, nearly 40% of all drugs taken by Americans come from overseas. And what’s more, nearly 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used to make these drugs also come from foreign countries, primarily China and India.
Under current U.S. law, the FDA does not have the authority recall unsafe drugs, to refuse imported drugs -- even counterfeited ones -- or to ensure that drug manufacturers are responsible for quality controls throughout the supply chain.
According to U.S. Representative John Dingell, writing for CNN:
“Even more worrisome is the inability of the FDA to conduct comparable inspections of domestic and foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers. It lacks the necessary funding and personnel. Domestic pharmaceutical facilities are inspected, on average, every two years by the FDA, whereas foreign drug facilities are inspected only every nine years.”