Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance

FDA is implementing a plan to help phase out the use of medically important antimicrobials in food animals for food production purposes, such as to enhance growth or improve feed efficiency. The plan would also phase in veterinary oversight of the remaining appropriate therapeutic uses of such drugs. The FDA is laying out a roadmap for animal pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily revise the FDA-approved use conditions on the labels of these products to remove production indications. Plan also calls for changing the current over-the-counter status to bring the remaining appropriate therapeutic uses under veterinary oversight.