Generic Drug Makers May Soon Pay for Inspection of Overseas Plants

Aug. 16, 2011— -- One of the world's largest generic drug makers is calling on its fellow manufacturers to help foot the bill for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct inspections of overseas pharmaceutical plants.

Up to 40 percent of the drugs Americans use are imported, and around 80 percent of the active ingredients in those drugs are made in foreign facilities. The FDA only inspected 11 percent of the more than 3,700 foreign manufacturing sites in 2009, according to data from the U.S.Government Accountability Office. All manufacturing facilities in the United States, however, are subject to FDA inspection every two years.

In addition, the GAO determined the FDA does not have accurate information on all of the overseas facilities, meaning the agency could not keep track of where inspections were needed.

One infamous result of such oversight problems occurred in 2008, when Chinese manufacturers substituted a fake ingredient for the main one in a supply of the blood thinner heparin. The contaminated drug killed 81 people in the United States and sickened hundreds of others. The FDA never inspected the plants that manufactured the main ingredient.

Hoping to prevent similar situations from happening again, Mylan Pharmaceuticals is helping to negotiate an agreement between the FDA and generic drug makers that would provide $299 million a year for inspections. That sum would come from fees paid by the manufacturers themselves.

The plan, which was first reported by the New York Times, was the brainchild of Mylan's president, Heather Bresch, who discovered that Mylan's foreign plants weren't held to the same quality and safety standards as the company's U.S.-based facilities.

"Every American has the right to know that whenever they go to have a prescription filled, it's held to the same standard of quality, whether it's made in the U.S. or overseas," Bresch told ABC News.

Bresch worked hard to win support for the plan from other generic drug makers.

"Generics account for 75 percent of prescription drug volume, and our industry was willing to step up," she said. "It's our chance to address issues of safety and standards."