FDA FOIA Monitor
Updated 7/26/26: FDA posted the May and June 2026 open logs after this edition first published, revealing that a meaningful number of requests we'd counted as closed were still pending. The figures below have been revised accordingly. It changed the story in a few places, most notably processing times, which are faster across most doc types than we originally reported. See the June 2026 issue for how this affected that month specifically.
64,339 Closed FDA FOIA Requests.
Here Is What They Tell Us.
This special edition establishes the baseline: every FDA FOIA request on file from 2015 through June 2026, analyzed for volume trends, processing times, requester behavior, and document type patterns. 70,243 requests are on file in total; 5,904 remain pending and are not yet closed. The figures below reflect closed requests only unless noted. Bookmark it. Monthly issues will mark movement against this foundation.
Processing Times Are Rising. Fast.
Median close times have climbed steadily since 2024. The 2026 median across most doc types now sits at or above levels last seen in 2022.
Bar length (in block characters) proportional to 2026 median, scaled to PMTA's 611-day median. Green/gold/red text = fastest to slowest track.
Who Files FDA FOIA, and How They Do It
Of the 70,243 requests on file, commercial FOIA services dominate volume at 31.2% of all filings, ahead of individual/citizen requesters at 27.7%. The most striking trend is still news media: outlets grew requests 226% from 2020 to 2025 (313 to 1,019), including 147% growth in 2024 alone (494 to 1,218).
| Category | Total | % of All | Median Days | Release Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Commercial FOIA Services Redica Systems · Fdazilla · Registrar Corp |
21,609 | 31.2% | 22 | 84.3% |
| Individual / Citizen | 19,159 | 27.7% | 28 | 65.7% |
| Regulated Industry | 15,480 | 22.4% | 25 | 70.5% |
| Law Firms | 5,760 | 8.3% | 36 | 65.4% |
|
News / Media Capitol Forum · Bloomberg · Daily Signal |
4,678 | 6.8% | 29 | 64.7% |
| Academic / Research | 1,869 | 2.7% | 26 | 70.5% |
| Advocacy / NGO | 543 | 0.8% | 36 | 69.1% |
| Government | 81 | 0.1% | 4 | 34.7% |
544 GLP-1 Requests Closed Since 2020. 2024 Remains the Peak Year.
GLP-1 FOIA requests grew steadily from 2020 through the 2024 peak, then eased in 2025 as some of that year's filings remain in the pending queue rather than closed. 2026 volume is running below 2024's pace so far, though a portion of this year's requests are also still open. Of the 544 total, 380 (54%) have been fully released. FAERS reports are the single most-requested doc type (217), followed by agency correspondence (98), NDA review files (76), and ANDA files (44).
Bar length (in block characters) proportional to count, scaled to 2024's peak of 278. Figures reflect requests closed in each calendar year. A meaningful share of 2025- and 2026-filed GLP-1 requests remain pending and will show up in later years' totals as they close.
Notable: Bloomberg's 2024 request for GLP-1 drug communications with food and beverage companies (closed after 705 days with "No Records") signals investigative appetite for supply chain and commercial angle. The Hunterbrook Media request on BLP Labs compounding enforcement released after 695 days.
Top 20 Most-Referenced Companies & Products/Topics
Companies are counted from the Company field (populated on about 25% of requests). Products/topics are counted from a text search of the Title field. Several names overlap both lists: Catalent, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Aurobindo, and a few others show up as both a company and a search topic.
TOP 20 COMPANIES
TOP 20 PRODUCTS / TOPICS
Watch List: Products With Significant FOIA Activity
| Product / Term | Category | First FOIA Yr | All Time | 2024 | 2026 YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| semaglutide | GLP-1 | 2021 | 263 | 159 | 28 |
| Syfovre | Ophthalmology | 2023 | 295 | 116 | 2 |
| Catalent | CMO / Enforcement | 2020 | 298 | 39 | 36 |
| Izervay | Ophthalmology | 2023 | 167 | 108 | 2 |
| JUUL | Tobacco / E-Cig | 2020 | 99 | 13 | 2 |
| Capricor | Cell Therapy / Rare | 2025 | 13 | 0 | 2 |
| ivermectin | Policy / COVID-era | 2020 | 61 | 11 | 1 |
| naloxone | Opioid / OTC | 2020 | 44 | 9 | 2 |
Product Tracker pulls from Title column (Sheet1, col L). Subscriber access includes live spreadsheet with formula-based tracking. Add any term to auto-populate counts.
Request Volume by Year
Bar length (in block characters) proportional to count, scaled to 2024's peak of 13,383. 2026 YTD (5,581 closed through June) is a partial year and shown without a bar; 5,904 more requests across all years remain pending.
A Baseline, Not a Snapshot
This special edition is meant to be evergreen: the full historical picture behind the FDA FOIA Monitor, not a single month's numbers. New subscribers can start here to understand the shape of the dataset before reading a monthly issue.