The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) draft guidance on risk management plans (RMPs) has overstepped the agency’s statutory bounds in requiring manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) as well as prescription drug manufacturers to submit risk management plans (RMPs) to avert drug shortages.   This requirement could impose the very drug shortages it is designed to prevent, instead of just targeting those products at risk of drug shortage, pharmace...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released draft guidance on Friday that formalizes its plans for using remote regulatory assessments (RRAs) for FDA-regulated products to supplement onsite inspections as it eases out of pandemic response mode. The guidance covers triggers for when FDA will request or require remote assessments and how these audits will be coordinated with onsite inspections.   These tools are not intended to replace onsite inspections but inste...

A global regulatory group is seeking industry participants for two pilot programs exploring a common regulatory framework for assessing manufacturing facilities in hybrid inspections and for reviewing postapproval changes.   The International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) announced the pilots on 24 June. The group said that the pilots were prompted by its July workshop which “highlighted the need for more convergence on CMC [chemistry, manufac...

CHICAGO – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to use a hybrid inspection model going forward as it eases out of its pandemic response mode, combining a mix of record requests, remote interactive evaluations (RIEs) with onsite inspections if needed, asserted Alonza Cruse, director of FDA’s pharmaceutical quality operations.   Cruse discussed how the agency is transitioning to normal operators at the 22 June Drug Information Association (DIA) annual meeting ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prevented 317 drug shortages in 2021, the highest number since the agency began tracking drug shortages in 2012, according to a recent report released by the agency.   The agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has been tracking drug shortages since the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) was passed in 2012, which requires FDA to release an annual report to Congress; FDA’s Center f...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) eliminated its backlog of overdue domestic preapproval inspections, yet such progress has been stunted at the international level as getting to sites in China has remained a challenge amid the country’s COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. So asserted Patrizia Cavazzoni, the director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), who provided an update on the center’s activities and priorities for 2022 at the Food and Drug ...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) top drug official said the pandemic has prompted the agency to consider new ways of working going forward and has renewed calls for industry to embrace digital technologies and decentralized models for conducting clinical trials. The pandemic has also prompted the agency to re-evaluate its hiring practices, and to adopt the use of alternative tools in lieu of onsite inspections, which have become a permanent fixture in the agency...

This article examines the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) return to inspections that were put on hold during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It outlines the agency’s oversight of drug and biological products during the pandemic and its plans moving forward. The authors summarize the agency’s guidance and policies, industry considerations, and recommendations to manufacturers preparing for their next FDA inspection.   Keywords FDA, inspections, quality, risk m...

Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) explained how the agency is prioritizing medical device inspections as it resumes normalized operations. They also announced a new “careful and cautious” approach to conducting foreign inspections.   At the 4 May virtual MedCon Conference which was hosted by the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) and the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS), officials also addressed how it will balance the u...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unannounced foreign inspections program has resumed in India but is still paused in China due to local COVID-19 restrictions, Judith McMeekin, FDA associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, said on 6 April during a webinar sponsored by the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.   Members of Congress have expressed concern that FDA’s drug inspection program is inadequate to meet the meet the growth in foreign drug manufacturing facili...

As the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) returns to normalized operations with onsite inspections, it will continue to take a risk-based approach in determining which firms are inspected next and continue to rely on mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) with other countries in assessing pharmaceutical facilities, according to Alonza Cruse, director of FDA’s pharmaceutical quality operations.   Cruse discussed how the agency is transitioning to normal operations on 1...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday outlined a pared-down plan to collect quality metrics data from drugmakers in an attempt to renew its earlier stalled effort to obtain manufacturing quality data as a means of mitigating potential drug shortages and promoting enhanced quality management in the pharmaceutical industry.   The agency stressed in an announcement that this program would be different from the original quality metrics draft guidance unv...