U.S. FDA plans to improve safety

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday unveiled in a report a new strategy to meet the challenges posed by rapidly rising imports of FDA- regulated products and a complex global supply chain. The report, titled "Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality," calls on the agency to transform the way it conducts business and to act globally in order to promote and protect the health of U.S. consumers. According to the report, the FDA will partner with its counterparts worldwide to create global coalitions of regulators focused on ensuring and improving global product safety and quality. The coalitions of regulators will develop international data information systems and networks, and increase the regular and proactive sharing of data and regulatory resources across world markets. The FDA will build in additional information gathering and analysis capabilities with an increased focus on risk analytics and information technology. It increasingly will leverage the efforts of public and private third parties and industry and allocate FDA resources based on risk. "FDA regulated imports have quadrupled since 2000. The FDA and our global regulatory partners recognize this new reality and realize we must work proactively and collaboratively to address the challenges we face," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement. "The FDA must further collaborate and leverage in order to close the gap between our import levels and our regulatory resources. This report is an important step in ensuring we are able to fulfill our critical public health mission."