{"id":31598,"date":"2022-05-25T22:37:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T22:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/25\/fda-chief-struggles-to-explain-its-slow-response-on-baby-formula\/"},"modified":"2022-05-25T22:37:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T22:37:30","slug":"fda-chief-struggles-to-explain-its-slow-response-on-baby-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/25\/fda-chief-struggles-to-explain-its-slow-response-on-baby-formula\/","title":{"rendered":"FDA chief struggles to explain its slow response on baby formula"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The head of the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday faced the bipartisan fury of House lawmakers for months over delays in investigating issues at the country’s largest infant formula plant that sparked a continued lack<\/span>.<\/p>\n

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf described a series of setbacks in Congressional testimony that slowed his agency’s response, including a COVID-19 outbreak at the plant and a complaint from a complainant who did not reach out to the FDA leadership because it was apparently lost by mail.<\/p>\n

Califf testified before a House subcommittee investigating the shortage, which has turned into a snowball in a national crisis and forced the U.S. military to air transportation supplies to the US from Europe<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The shortage comes in large part from the Abbott plant in Michigan, which the FDA closed in February due to pollution issues. Under the fire of Congress, parents and the media, Califf on Wednesday gave the first detailed account of why it took his agency months to inspect and close the plant despite learning of possible problems as early as September.<\/p>\n

FDA response was “too slow”<\/h2>\n

The FDA’s response was “too slow and there were decisions that were suboptimal along the way,” Califf told lawmakers.<\/p>\n

The FDA and President Joe Biden are facing increasing pressure to explain why they did not intervene earlier to avert the supply crisis.<\/p>\n

“Why did it need a national media attention attack for the Biden administration to act with a sense of urgency needed to address the shortage of infant formulas?” asked Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican from Virginia, the committee’s Republican ranking.<\/p>\n

Califf said the agency had been trying to control formula supplies since 2020, when COVID-related disruptions first arose, but regulators have limited visibility into companies’ supply chains.<\/p>\n

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