A bill requiring drug labels to specify the country of manufacture for every ingredient has been introduced to the US Senate. The heparin contamination in March 2008 that led to 81 deaths raised concerns about the contents of foreign-made drugs coming into the US. In response to this and other crises involving imported drugs, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has proposed the Transparency in Drug Labeling Act as an amendment to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The country-of-origin requirement would apply not only to active ingredients but to excipients too. At the same time, the FDA has announced that it will open its first overseas office this year. The office, in Beijing, staffed by eight US nationals and five Chinese locals, will provide technical advice, conduct additional inspections and form liaisons with government agencies and the private sector to develop certification programs for food and drug exports. Additional offices are planned in Shanghai and Guangzhou, as well as in India, Central America and parts of Europe. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is concerned, however, that most FDA foreign inspections have focused on manufacturing plants named in new drug applications rather than follow risk-based assessments as is done in the US. In selecting foreign inspection sites, “the [FDA needs] to take the same factors into consideration and apply them in the same ways,” says Marcia Crosse, GAO director of healthcare.