Reuters: FDA to screen all imports, exemptions for low-value shipments revoked

[rsmith]

Exactly. Unless FDA is going to shed a few thousand employees and give them to CBP nothing in that article is going to happen. And that's even assuming CBP would accept those bodies from FDA. As a US government employee, I can tell you inter-agency cooperation is practically nonexistent between most.

At best, CBP may start doing what they did in Chicago a month or so ago. Surging agents to one or more specific ports of entry for increased scrutiny of small imports that only lasts for 30-60 days. They can't do it forever, and they don't want to anyway. CBP and DEA/DOJ have bigger fish to fry than Chinese Peptide Cowboys.

CBP and DEA/DOJ have bigger fish to fry than Chinese Peptide Cowboys.

This has nothing to do with 3-letter agencies in the government. It's all motivated, financed and lobbied by exceedingly greedy pharmaceutical companies. Imagine if Bayer could charge $2000 per aspirin (and they most certainly would if they could). People would find multiple ways to get the same ingredients for pennies.

A friend of a friend bought many 1000's of dollars’ worth of genuine Cuban cigars for years which of course were also restricted for import. Never had a single shipment intercepted even though they too were guaranteed for re-delivery/refund if necessary.

Despite the scare tactics by big pharma, they can't stop the grey market with threats of government intervention. Their only choice is to compete on price and quality on peps, like they did for aspirin, and they are currently miles away from doing so.

 

[rsmith]

I hope screen all imports mean they have a screening process where they pick 50 packs a day out of 20, 000.... notice they said screen not inspect.

If anything, it will be closer to 50 packs out of 20 million... meaningless and insignificant. Hundreds of millions of parcels enter the country every single day and it would literally take millions of people to screen them all. It's just not going to happen.

 

[rsmith]

Quick question... I have a 10mg vial of Reta. How much water do I put in it?

If you're really thirsty, use more water. If not, use less... duh!

 

[rsmith]

The line between panic buying and waiting to hear more updates is so thin… just an fyi I’m in some groups for luxury goods from China- they are cracking down on that as well. Those folks are definitely panic buying right now.

just an fyi I’m in some groups for luxury goods from China

So, you're stocking up on designer "handbags" and Rolex watches huh? They're always available in NYC Chinatown if your supplier hits a snag

 

[AndyPanda]

Haha. That’s the funny part. They’ve fired about 121,000 government employees (and between 3,500 to 10,000 FDA employees) and yet the government seems bigger than ever right now. Crazy times.

The people they fired were in support roles that didn’t really do much, and the ones that are left have actual expectations to perform now. As a consumer of grey market goods, I hate it. As a taxpayer, I love it. As a retired federal employee who actually did my job, I respect it.

I think what will be on our side is the attrition this will create.

 

[ZippityDooDah]

I always go back to a similar situation years ago with Viagra. Pfizer spent countless millions (maybe billions) trying to stop the flow of foreign duplicates for 10+ years, often with Uncle Sam's assistance hand-in-hand.

You know how many people they stopped from getting their boner pills? Zero.

Did people occasionally have packages seized? Sure, much like we see with peptides today. Did any of their efforts really accomplish anything? Well, I guess there were probably a few nights that Uncle Dick wasn't the most popular guy at the retirement home, but other than that it amounted to nothing.

 

[exploitedworkerbee]

My money is on the CBP guys (which are now better funded than most militaries) pulling all the packages that have vials and walking them over to the FDA guy (there only needs to be one) who is churning out nastygram after nastygram demanding more documentation on our research purposes that they know we can’t provide. You don’t need an army of FDA agents to seriously hinder the flow of these things.

 

[tncc_rn]

My money is on the CBP guys (which are now better funded than most militaries) pulling all the packages that have vials and walking them over to the FDA guy (there only needs to be one) who is churning out nastygram after nastygram demanding more documentation on our research purposes that they know we can’t provide. You don’t need an army of FDA agents to seriously hinder the flow of these things.

I got to go with Zippy on this one....not much is going to change for us in the long term. Maybe a few more seizures and hassles short term, but ultimately it will all stay the same.

Past performance is a good indicator of future results when it comes to government interdiction of contraband. Remember, the Peptide Cowboys haven't even gotten to bribery yet in their playbook.

 

[tncc_rn]

The people they fired were in support roles that didn’t really do much, and the ones that are left have actual expectations to perform now. As a consumer of grey market goods, I hate it. As a taxpayer, I love it. As a retired federal employee who actually did my job, I respect it.

I think what will be on our side is the attrition this will create.

When you confiscate nothing and then confiscate one thing, you've increase your policing effectiveness 100% (which sounds fantastic to news reporters).

 

[yobculture]

The people they fired were in support roles that didn’t really do much, and the ones that are left have actual expectations to perform now. As a consumer of grey market goods, I hate it. As a taxpayer, I love it. As a retired federal employee who actually did my job, I respect it.

I think what will be on our side is the attrition this will create.

Glad you’re OK with it. I’m not. I’m not going to see any benefits of the massive cuts as a taxpayer and you probably won’t either. But I know who will see the benefits. All I know is that government is much bigger now than ever. From ensuring that Amazon and Eli Lilly keeps making billions to threatening a football team unless they change their name. That’s not the government’s role. It’s out of control. (I rhymed!)

Maybe this will blow over, or maybe not. But Eli Lilly is very aware of the gray market in the same way Amazon is aware of Temu and AliExpress. Neither want their billions threatened by the opposition. And now they have an ally in the federal government.

We will see how this unfolds in the next year.

 

[rsmith]

Glad you’re OK with it. I’m not. I’m not going to see any benefits of the massive cuts as a taxpayer and you probably won’t either. But I know who will see the benefits. All I know is that government is much bigger now than ever. From ensuring that Amazon and Eli Lilly keeps making billions to threatening a football team unless they change their name. That’s not the government’s role. It’s out of control. (I rhymed!)

Maybe this will blow over, or maybe not. But Eli Lilly is very aware of the gray market in the same way Amazon is aware of Temu and AliExpress. Neither want their billions threatened by the opposition. And now they have an ally in the federal government.

We will see how this unfolds in the next year.

And now they have an ally in the federal government.

That ain't saying much.

 

[indolent]

My money is on the CBP guys (which are now better funded than most militaries)

99.99.99% of my money is on 99.99.99% of the CBP budget going to well-connected vendors of all sorts of overpriced gizmos and failing algorithmic services, and not to headcount (not even outsourced heads).

 

[christa_channing]

" it will now review all imports of the products it regulates regardless of their quantity or value ."

Are we forgetting that the items shipped are not marked as items that they regulate, but as "buckles" and "data cables?"

 

[Ted R]

If this started July 9th, they really are doing nothing right. It will take them a while to even pretend they are hitting targets.

Have you seen the video posted by @tncc_rn ? We are fine.

These employees are in no rush at all, working at a federal employee pace. Over a billion packages a year anyway, which would be a challenge even for AI.

"I would have inspected those packages there but I HAVE to take my mandatory union specified break RIGHT NOW."

 

[AndyPanda]

99.99.99% of my money is on 99.99.99% of the CBP budget going to well-connected vendors of all sorts of overpriced gizmos and failing algorithmic services, and not to headcount (not even outsourced heads).

It would be better spent on the gizmos. People suck.

 

[PackmanJohnny]

And now they have an ally in the federal government.

We will see how this unfolds in the next year.

Yeah, but thats not saying a whole lot if theyre pulling all the strings they can and the only interested party is the FDA(which they own) who can do fuck all about it.

CBP and DEA are way too busy doing their actual jobs for once and for the first time in awhile the guy at the top isnt some senator theyve been lobbying for 20 years.

Lilly cant fuck with us and deep down they know it. That makes me happy. Be happy with me.

 

[AndyPanda]

Glad you’re OK with it. I’m not. I’m not going to see any benefits of the massive cuts as a taxpayer and you probably won’t either. But I know who will see the benefits. All I know is that government is much bigger now than ever. From ensuring that Amazon and Eli Lilly keeps making billions to threatening a football team unless they change their name. That’s not the government’s role. It’s out of control. (I rhymed!)

Maybe this will blow over, or maybe not. But Eli Lilly is very aware of the gray market in the same way Amazon is aware of Temu and AliExpress. Neither want their billions threatened by the opposition. And now they have an ally in the federal government.

We will see how this unfolds in the next year.

I hope you realize that none of this is new or unique.

 

[yobculture]

I hope you realize that none of this is new or unique.

Not like this! You know that but clearly you’re not going to budge on this issue and neither am I. It’s clear that the government is bigger today than ever. More and more gray orders are being held up in customs and people are suddenly getting their knockoff Temu Legos seized. Priorities! Thoughts and prayers to all of us in the pep world.

 

[rsmith]

" it will now review all imports of the products it regulates regardless of their quantity or value ."

Are we forgetting that the items shipped are not marked as items that they regulate, but as "buckles" and "data cables?"

Package Delivery Statistics (2026): per Day, Month & Year

Latest statistics on the volume of parcels delivered (in the U.S. and globally) broken down per minute, day, month and year.

capitaloneshopping.com

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/typical-day-fy2022

Highlights: Last updated: February 20, 2024

21.2 billion packages shipped in the U.S. in 2022; projections indicate that as many as 32.0 billion packages will ship in 2028. (Note: that latter number equates to almost 90 million parcels into the US per day).

Employed:
63,843 men and women

25,836 CBP officers (So, each CBP officer would have to inspect 1.2 million packages/day... a number I doubt they could reach in a lifetime)

2,668 CBP Agriculture Specialists

19,357 Border Patrol agents

569 Air interdiction agents (pilots)

364 Marine interdiction agents

363 Aviation enforcement agents

1,104 Trade personnel

Seized:
2,895 pounds of drugs

$217,700 illicit currency seized

$8 million worth of products with Intellectual Property Rights violations

3 kits of R60 (Ok, I estimated on this one )

 

[AndyPanda]

3 kits of R60 (Ok, I estimated on this one )

It’s probably true!