FDA issued 39 warning letters to OTC drug facilities, most of them outside the US, in 2017, a number significantly boosted by an initiative to inspect a total of 1,000 foreign drug manufacturers from January 2017 through September 2019 , says CDER compliance director Donald Ashley. Many GMP violations behind FDA's warning letters concerned “rudimentary" requirements.
Most of FDA's 39 warning letters to OTC drug manufacturers in 2017 went to foreign firms, boosted by an agency initiative to inspect by the end of September 2019 some 1,000 pharma manufacturing plants outside the US it had yet to reach.
FDA began the initiative in 2017 and anticipates completing it ahead of schedule.