The FDA tweeted a request to medical devicemakers to report any potential shortages of equipment that may be necessary to diagnose COVID-19, since they aren't required to report shortages in the same way drugmakers are, Politico reported.
The FDA is trying to gather information about swabs, test kits and any other supplies that could be used for diagnostic testing.
Due to a decades-old law, devicemakers aren't required to report potential shortages to the FDA. That makes it hard for the agency to identify weaknesses in the supply chain for coronavirus testing, according to Politico.
Anand Shah, MD, the FDA's deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, tweeted March 17: "@US_FDA suggests companies make public their inventory, production schedule and a hotline number to address questions regarding availability of reagents and other supplies needed for #COVID19 testing. If you have an allocation plan to maximize efficient testing, please post."
President Donald Trump's 2020 budget request proposed requiring devicemakers to tell the FDA if it expects a significant interruption of essential products and to require them to file regular reports on their manufacturing capacity, Politico reported.
A spokesperson for AdvaMed, the medical device industry's top lobbying group, told Politico it is working with the FDA to "find the best way to ensure the appropriate information gets to the FDA during this time of crisis."
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