FDA paus­es do­mes­tic drug in­spec­tions again, this time to pro­tect against Omi­cron

The FDA qui­et­ly an­nounced on Tues­day that just be­fore New Year’s eve, the agency again paused all of its non-mis­sion-crit­i­cal in­spec­tions in the US, like­ly lead­ing to an even larg­er back­log of in­spec­tions world­wide.

The pause, which will last at least two weeks, is meant to en­sure the safe­ty of FDA em­ploy­ees and the com­pa­nies it reg­u­lates as the agency fur­ther adapts to the spread of Omi­cron.

“Through Jan.19, the agency in­tends to con­tin­ue mis­sion-crit­i­cal work but has tem­porar­i­ly post­poned cer­tain in­spec­tion­al ac­tiv­i­ties with the hopes of restart­ing these ac­tiv­i­ties as soon as pos­si­ble,” the FDA said in a state­ment.

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