FDA Suspends Domestic Inspections as Coronavirus Outbreak Spreads

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn announced that the agency has suspended routine domestic facility inspections in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

He said the agency will move forward with for-cause inspections only if they are deemed “mission-critical.” The agency will evaluate records in lieu of site inspections on an interim basis.

Hahn noted that all eligible FDA employees are now teleworking. The telework order does not apply to “non-portable” tasks such as lab activities or the monitoring if imports, he said.