The FDA is trying to ensure that baby formula will be able to be shipped from overseas more easily, even after the current shortage is resolved.
Federal regulations on baby formula imports had been so strict that few shipments made it to the U.S. Those strictures were loosened following a chronic shortage that was touched off by the closure of an Abbott Laboratories formula plant in Michigan.
Now the FDA is working to make the new rules permanent, giving the agency more flexibility to allow shipments of baby formula after it has been properly tested. In addition, the FDA will provide technical support for companies seeking to enter the baby formula market, which has been notoriously difficult.
“The FDA expects that our continued efforts will help infant formula manufacturers who are new entrants to the U.S. market better understand their options to continue producing and supplying formula to the U.S. in the weeks, months and years ahead,” the agency said in a statement quoted in the Wall Street Journal.
The government hopes new entrants will reduce the concentration in the baby formula market, where Abbott and Reckitt Benckiser hold a combined 80% share.
