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# FDA Inspections Will Adapt to New Strategies: Attorneys
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-inspections-will-adapt-to-new-strategies-attorneys/
- Published: 2021-12-07T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T17:24:44.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5150719

As FDA continues to use alternative inspectional tools, such as remote interactive evaluations, the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic will likely see the agency “continue to adapt and utilize new strategies for accomplishing oversight activities that were previously conducted primarily through FDA in-person inspections,” according to a Kleinfeld, Kaplan & Becker (KKB) [online post](https://www.kkblaw.com/a-less-hazy-crystal-ball-updates-on-fda-inspections-during-the-covid-19-era/?ref=fdaweb.com) by attorneys **Samantha Hong** and **Jacqueline Chan**.

The attorneys based their prediction on a recent FDA update on its inspection Resiliency Roadmap report. “In addition to continuing its risk-based approach for prioritizing oversight activities, FDA has made clear that it intends to increasingly rely on remote inspections and other alternative oversight tools where in-person inspections are not practical or feasible,“ they say. “Indeed, FDA established the FDA Inspectional Affairs Council (FIAC) in July [\[3\]](https://www.kkblaw.com/a-less-hazy-crystal-ball-updates-on-fda-inspections-during-the-covid-19-era/?ref=fdaweb.com#%5Fftn3) to ‘develop a multi-year strategic action plan to enhance our coordinated approach to inspections, information sharing, and other processes to accelerate evaluation and potential integration of new oversight methods and tools.’ In the Resiliency Roadmap update, FDA announced FIAC’s intent to focus on the use of remote regulatory assessments among its top initial priorities. Such assessments involve records requests made pursuant to FDA’s statutory authority as well as requests for voluntary submission of records and remote interactive evaluations — tools, as we mentioned, that FDA has already been employing over the course of the pandemic.”

FDA’s update also says it completed more than twice as many domestic surveillance oversight activities than projected in the original Roadmap, the attorneys note. Of the 4,849 domestic surveillance inspections completed since May, 3,710 involved human and animal foods, including Foreign Supplier Verification Program inspections, and 1,139 involved human and animal medical products. Additionally, the KKB post notes that FDA relied on “its use of alternative oversight tools — such as records review, remote inspections, and leveraging information from foreign and state regulatory partners — to complete these inspections as well as to inform other oversight needs.”