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# Drug Inspections at ‘Operational Levels’: Throckmorton
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/drug-inspections-at-operational-levels-throckmorton/
- Published: 2022-08-16T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T17:55:57.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5152516

CDER deputy director for regulatory programs **Douglas Throckmorton** told the GMP by the Sea conference that domestic drug inspections of facilities have been at “standard operational levels” since 10/2021 and foreign inspections have been performed for six months, except in China. Attorney **Douglas Farquhar** (Hyman, Phelps & McNamara) [reports](https://www.thefdalawblog.com/2022/08/fda-inspections-back-up-to-speed-except-those-now-deemed-unnecessary/?ref=fdaweb.com) in his firm’s *FDA Law Blog* that Throckmorton also said the number of required pre-approval inspections has been cut by about 50% as a result of FDA reexamining the necessity of so many pre-approval inspections.

Throckmorton reportedly told the conference that many of the operational changes made due to Covid will become permanent. “The agency has reexamined whether, from a risk perspective, so many on-site inspections are necessary, either because the risk of problems at a particular facility is low, or because alternatives (such as records inspections or what FDA refers to as ‘remote interactive evaluations’) can substitute for on-site inspections,” Farquhar writes.