Officials say the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was slow to respond to a crippling shortage of baby formula in part because a crucial report got lost in the mail.
In testimony to a House subcommittee this week, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf confirmed that a whistleblower report detailing potentially unsanitary conditions at the Abbott Nutrition baby formula plant in Michigan did not reach the proper officials at the agency because of a mistake in the agency's mailroom. The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the 34-page report took four months to reach the proper desk at the FDA. By the time it did, several infants had been sickened by tainted formula from the plant, which was shut down in February. That closure (along with protectionist regulations and trade policy) triggered the ongoing national shortage.
