ProPublica Publishes Unreleased Data on the Origins of Generic Prescription Drugs

ProPublica has released a new dataset, previously unavailable from the FDA, linking generic drugs to their manufacturing factories. This data powers ProPublica's Rx Inspector tool, allowing users to trace generic drugs back to their origin and view FDA inspection records. The dataset was created by linking several FDA datasets and required a lawsuit to obtain some information. Researchers believe this information will significantly aid in evaluating generic drug quality and supply chains, potentially leading to quality-based purchasing decisions by government agencies. While acknowledging potential incompleteness due to outdated information, ProPublica is releasing the data under a Creative Commons license for noncommercial use, aiming to increase transparency in generic drug manufacturing.