April 23, 2015
“The following Pharmaceuticals FY 2015 Action Plan (the Action Plan), developed by the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), and the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), is intended to facilitate operational and program alignment as FDA transitions to distinct commodity-based and vertically-integrated regulatory programs with well-defined leads, coherent policy and strategy development, and well-designed and coordinated implementation.”
That’s the FDA’s plain Jane version of its 2015 Action Plan. But let’s look at some interesting wrinkles not necessarily contained in the document.
The Pharmaceuticals Inspectorate will change the way FDA inspectors conducts audits and how many audits will be conducted in a years’ time. There are some interesting things to note here: First, the Center for Biologics (CBER) is noticeably not included in this reorganization effort. Second, district offices will not be at the helm when it comes to which drug firms get inspected and how compliance OAI & VAI cases are handled. Third, CDER will be assuming the lead role and Center compliance teams will be responsible for industry corrective action plans.
Traditionally, the district compliance team for the drug company took the lead role in compliance strategy and remediation. But now, the inspectors conducting drug audits will be dedicated and certified to conduct inspections. This will reduce errors and enhance the quality of inspections domestically and internationally. This will also increase the number of observations (483 notice of observations), warning letters, and consent decrees.
When a generalist inspector conducts a drug audit they may miss a system wide failure or process control deviation due to a lack of training. By contrast, when a professional team of inspectors with dedicated drug training for a drug firms system conduct an audit, those same compliance issues are not usually missed. This is a positive step in the right direction however building the new drug teams and training them accordingly will take years.
Quality by design (QbD) implementation is looming so this will also affect the training requirements from a system based approach to a QbD approach.
Don’t be caught off-guard by this new way of doing things. The FDA is making some changes here, and regulated firms need to make sure they understand them.
Patrick Stone is the author of Bubble Gum Badge – An FDA His-Story. You can also follow him on Twitter.
