How safe are the pharmaceutical companies' plants?

The FDA makes only an average of 0.9 visits to each US pharmaceutial manufacturing facility each year. A report published in Pharmalot this week reviewed almost 10,000 of those inspections between 2000 and September 30, 2010. It shows that some of the biggest drugmakers do not have a good track record when it comes time for FDA inspectors to visit their plants. Overall, the FDA found violations at 54 percent of plants inspected last year, up 20 percent from a decade low in 2007 and 80 drugmakers failed more than half of their inspections. Abbott Labs failed 59 percent of 111 inspections; Pfizer flunked 57 percent of 202 inspections; Merck bombed out on 52 percent of 134 visits and Johnson & Johnson failed 48 percent of 161 inspections. For more go to Pharmalot.