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From Defensible to Predictive: How High-Functioning MLR Teams Are Evolving Their Risk Assessment Approach

For several years, FDA's Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) maintained a relatively low enforcement profile. For example, between 2022 and 2024, the Agency issued only 14 Untitled and Warning Letters, leading many to view promotional enforcement as relatively predictable and infrequent....

Quality & Compliance

What Should Be on Your Clinical Trial Investigator Site Audit Checklist?

You live and operate in a regulated industry. Obviously, it’s crucial that you stay in compliance during your clinical trials. That’s because failure to do so has enormous and expensive consequences....

Quality & Compliance

How to Write an Effective Quality Investigation Report

In 2016, the FDA issued hundreds of 483 observations across the Drug and Device industries for failing to thoroughly review or investigate issues. This topic consistently hits the top five most...

Quality & Compliance

Should Data Integrity Detection be a Part of Routine cGMP Training Programs?

The FDA’s focus on data integrity in recent years has proven that it remains an industry issue. The focus has resulted in significantly increased issuance rates of 483 observations, warning letters,...

Quality & Compliance

Data Integrity 101: Is your data compliant?

Data integrity has recently been in the agency spotlight. In part because of the draft data integrity guidance issued April 2016, but primarily due to an increased number of inspection findings...

Quality & Compliance

Clinical Quality Systems & the Outsourced Model

The landscape of clinical trials is evolving. The changes that are happening are due to the increased number of FDA-regulated trials, as well as a rise in the complexity of clinical protocols. As...

Quality & Compliance

FDA’s Most Frequent 483 Observations for 2016: A Reflection of Industry’s Compliance

At the beginning of each year, the US FDA posts the previous year’s Form 483 observation metrics issued by each product center. Image Source: FDA I find that reviewing these metrics provides a...

Regulatory Sciences

Senators work to Reform FDA’s Medical Device Inspection Process with Bipartisan Bill

On Wednesday, February 15th, Senators Michael Bennet (D – CO) and Johnny Isakson (R – GA) introduced a bill to improve FDA’s medical device inspection process. If passed, the bill would amend the...

Quality & Compliance

The Benefits of Process Characterization in Process Development

The desire for a robust and repeatable manufacturing process is shared by every organization that has a therapy or product in development and the only way to demonstrate that this desired state has...

Regulatory Sciences

#2: Labeling for Human Prescription Drug and Biological Products – Implementing the PLR Content and Format Requirements

In 2013, the FDA released a guidance entitled "Labeling for Human Prescription Drug and Biological Products – Implementing the PLR Content and Format Requirements." This guidance was finalized after...

Phase-Appropriate Development and Application of Quality Systems in the Drug Development Process

Phase-Appropriate Development and Application of Quality Systems in the Drug Development Process: The Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) recently published a revised version of Technical Report No....

#3: Nonclinical Safety Evaluation of Reformulated Drug Products and Products Intended for Administration by an Alternate Route

In October 2015, the FDA published a guidance document which outlines its recommendations regarding “the nonclinical evaluation of previously approved drug substances when a new formulation or a new...

Full-Service CRO

Submitting Initial Pediatric Study Plans and Amended Initial Pediatric Study Plans

On March 8, 2016, the FDA announced availability of a revised draft guidance for industry regarding pediatric study plans, entitled "Pediatric Study Plans: Content of and Process for Submitting...

Quality & Compliance

Understanding the 21st Century Cures Act: Part II

The 21st Century Cures Act, (Passed December 13, 2016), represents three years of cooperation between Congress, the FDA, and industry to modernize the current legal framework within which the FDA...

Quality & Compliance

Understanding the 21st Century Cures Act: Part I

The recent passage of the 21st Century Cures Act (passed December 13, 2016) marks a significant milestone for medical device and drug development. I recently attended a meeting held by the Food and...

#5: How to Comply with the Pediatric Research Equity Act

On September 7, 2005, FDA announced the availability of a draft guidance, entitled "How to Comply with the Pediatric Research Equity Act," providing sponsors with a number of recommendations...

What to Expect During the NDA Review Process

Compiling and submitting a New Drug Application (NDA) submission is a complicated and intensive activity. Once you have submitted your application to FDA, you may be curious about what can you expect...

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Safety Data Exchange Agreements (SDEAs) and Pharmacovigilance Agreements (PVAs) – An Overview

A Safety Data Exchange Agreement (SDEA) or Pharmacovigilance Agreement (PVA) is a legal written contract which ensures that all safety data, PV tasks and responsibilities are detailed between two or...

FDA Shelf Life Extension Program (SLEP)

The FDA’s homepage contains an item in the Public Health Focus section from the Office of Communications entitled “Don’t Use Expired Medicine.” Given this mandate, I recall from many years ago the...

An Overview of the PSMF: Pharmacovigilance System Master File

What is a PSMF? The EU Pharmacovigilance System Master File (PSMF) is a legally required document created and maintained by a Marketing Authorisation Holder (MAH). Essentially, the document is a...

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The Importance of the eCTD Structure for FDA Approval

The Importance of the eCTD To harmonize the process of regulatory reviews for global drug development, a unified structure was developed and implemented for electronic Common Technical Document...

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What is the FSP Model in Clinical Research?

The term Functional Service Provider (FSP) concept is highly regarded in the field of clinical research. With drug discovery and clinical trials becoming more complex, pharmaceutical firms and...