India pharma quality lapses force U.S. to look to China for vital drugs

In the final weeks of 2022, a small team of inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were far from home, investigating a pharmaceutical factory in western India.

Indian drugmaker Intas was making cancer drugs for the United States at the plant where, in a trash bin, inspectors found documents doused in acetic acid. More papers with manufacturing and drug testing data were shredded and tucked away in plastic bags under a stairwell, indicating that Intas executives had manipulated data and tried to cover it up.