Baby formula shortage: FDA chief takes heat for slow response to issue

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf attends a hearing of U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, titled "A Review of the President's Fiscal Year 2023 Bud WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of the Food and Drug Administration faced bipartisan fury from House lawmakers Wednesday over months of delays investigating problems at the nation's largest baby formula plant that prompted an ongoing shortage.FDA Commissioner Robert Califf laid out a series of setbacks in congressional testimony that slowed his agency’s response, including a COVID-19 outbreak at the plant and a whistleblower complaint that didn’t reach FDA leadership because it was apparently lost in the mail.Califf testified before a House subcommittee probing the shortage, which has snowballed into a major political controversy and forced the U.S.

to begin airlifting products from Europe.RELATED: Baby Formula Shortage: 78,000 pounds of infant formula arrives in USThe FDA's response was: "Too slow and there were decisions that were suboptimal along the way," Califf told lawmakers.Operation Fly Formula, part of the Biden administration's plan to fix the national baby formula shortage, is under way.

The first planes arrived in Indiana Sunday.The FDA and President Joe Biden face mounting pollical pressure to explain why they didn’t intervene earlier to try and head off the supply crisis."Why did it take an onslaught of national media attention for the Biden administration to act with a sense of urgency required to address an infant formula shortage?" asked Rep.