Routine Inspections Suspended During Partial FDA Shutdown

Some of the FDA’s regulatory and compliance activities — including routine inspections — were placed on hold because of the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22 and continued into the new year.

Almost 60 percent of the FDA’s workforce was kept on to handle core agency activities including high-risk medical product recalls, certain criminal and civil investigations, medical product screening and other critical public health activities.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb took to Twitter to assure the public the FDA’s core public-health functions continued during the shutdown.