What Is Rx Inspector?
Labels on pill bottles may list the distributor or repackager of a generic drug, but they don’t always show where it was really made.
Without that critical information, you can’t learn what the Food and Drug Administration discovered if and when that factory was inspected for quality and safety violations.
Now you can.
To bring more sunlight to the world of drug manufacturing, ProPublica connected the disparate databases and websites where the FDA scatters this information.
We also obtained documents stemming from thousands of FDA inspections of generic drug factories since 2008. At one point, we sued the FDA in federal court for factory locations and received a partial list.
Our database will show you the facility that manufactured your prescription generic drugs and any inspection reports we have from the FDA.
The data is not perfect: It is possible the FDA’s information is not up-to-date because, for example, one company acquired another or moved its manufacturing to a different location.
However, we believe this is an important first step in shedding light on a process that the agency and drugmakers have sought to keep secret from consumers.
How Does It Work?
You enter in the name of your generic prescription drug, as well as the company name found on your pill bottle or drug label.
We then search through our database for potential matches. If there are multiple matches, you can narrow your search using the markings found on a pill or other filtering options. If you have a National Drug Code on the package, you can use that as well.
When you click on the drug, we will show you any manufacturing facilities we have been able to connect to it. Clicking on a facility will let you see information on where the facility is located, what other drugs it makes and any FDA inspection information.
