South Korea is moving to quickly strengthen its import controls after encountering repeated attempts to smuggle in drug products containing the powdered remains of deceased human flesh, reports The Korea Times . "The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said it apprehended 29 smugglers, who disguising themselves as tourists and attempted to bring some 11,000 capsules into Korea in their luggage," wrote The Korea Times . "Six people used international parcels to smuggle in the m...

The state of Nebraska, engaged in an ongoing battle with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its supply of an controversial anesthetic drug used in executions, confirmed it will defy an FDA order to hand over remaining supplies of sodium thiopental, reports The Associated Press. In a statement released 20 April, Nebraska's state attorney general's office said they believed a court order, issued by Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon, was incorrect. Leon...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently embroiled in an escalating fight with South Dakota's government over the regulatory quality-and legal status-of a drug intended to be used to put prisoners to death, reports KSFY News . The drug, an anesthetic known as sodium thiopental, is a staple of a three-drug cocktail commonly used to execute prisoners on death row. Anti-death pentalty advocates have increasingly been targeting the drug, which is no longer p...

A US District Court judge this week barred the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from importing an anesthetic drug used in executions, saying FDA's use of enforcement discretion was "callous" and "disappointing," reports Reuters . "The FDA appears to be simply wrapping itself in the flag of law enforcement discretion to justify its authority and masquerade an otherwise seemingly callous indifference to the health consequences of those imminently facing the execution...

Fourteen Chinese companies have been linked to contaminated heparin, an anticoagulant commonly used during surgical procedures and dialysis, according to a Wall Street Journal report . The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added these companies to an import list allowing FDA to stop shipments at the border. That list already included eight other Chinese suppliers who were believe to have provided tainted raw materials for the making of heparin. The Wall Street J...

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced at a press conference on 21 February that the agency is working with manufacturers to resolve drug supply shortages of the cancer drugs Doxil (doxorubicin) and methotrexate. Hamburg said the agency is working with domestic and foreign manufacturers to bring supply levels of both drugs back to non-shortage levels, adding that the agency has allowed the import of an unapproved replacement of Dox...

Death row inmates incarcerated in Tennessee, Arizona and California argued on 9 February that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is breaking the law by allowing the importation of sodium thiopental -an anesthetic drug commonly used in a cocktail of execution drugs-after its manufacturer halted domestic production of the drug in 2011. The inmates contend that FDA does not have the authority to allow the drug to be imported because the drug product does not have ma...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a new proposed regulation on Wednesday, 25 January that aims to provide a stable pathway for persons requesting the import of food items containing residues of animal drugs that are unapproved in the US. The proposed regulation -  Import Tolerances for Residues of Unapproved New Animal Drugs in Food   - is the final outstanding action FDA needs to take to fully implement the Animal Drug Availability Act of 1...