By: Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D.
Over the last year, a group of senior FDA leaders, under my direction, were tasked to develop plans to modify FDA’s functions and processes in order to address new regulatory challenges. Among these challenges are: the increasing breadth and complexity of FDA’s mandate; the impact of globalization on the food and medical product supply chains; and the ongoing trend of rapid scientific innovation and increased biomedical discovery.
The Directorates, Centers and the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) have collaborated closely to define the changes needed to align ourselves more strategically and operationally and meet the greater demands placed on the agency. As a result, each regulatory program has established detailed action plans. Specifically, each plan describes the steps in transitioning to commodity-based and vertically-integrated regulatory programs in the following areas: human and veterinary drugs; biological products; medical devices and radiological health; bioresearch monitoring (BIMO); food and feed; and tobacco.
These action plans focus on what will be accomplished in FY 2015 and outline the need to develop detailed future plans for the next five years in some cases. The plans represent what each Center and ORA have agreed are the critical actions to jointly fulfill FDA’s mission in the key areas of specialization, training, work planning, compliance policy and enforcement strategy, imports, laboratory optimization, and information technology.
Because each Center has a unique regulatory program to manage, there are understandably variations among the plans. However, there are also common features across most of the plans: the need to define specialization across our inspection and compliance functions; to identify competencies in these areas of specialization and develop appropriate training curricula; to develop risk-based work planning that is aligned with program priorities and improves accountability; and to develop clear and current compliance policies and enforcement strategies.
Below are some highlights from the plans that illustrate these features:
- Establish Senior Executive Program Directors in ORA. In the past, for example, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) would work with several ORA units responsible for the pharmaceutical program. Now, the Centers will have a single Senior Executive in ORA responsible for each commodity program, allowing ORA and the Centers to resolve matters more efficiently.
- Jointly develop new inspection approaches. The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) and ORA plan, for example, will begin to focus some inspections on characteristics and features of medical devices most critical to patient safety and device effectiveness. ORA investigators will perform these inspections utilizing jointly developed training.
- Invest in expanded training across ORA and the Centers. The Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) and ORA will jointly develop a biologics training curriculum, redesign investigator certification, and cross-train Center and ORA investigators, compliance officers and managers.
- Expand compliance tools. Field investigators will be teamed with subject matter experts from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Center for Veterinary Medicine to make decisions in real time, working with firms to achieve prompt correction of food safety deficiencies and to help implement the preventive approaches outlined by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). If industry does not quickly and adequately correct critical areas of noncompliance that could ultimately result in food borne outbreaks, we will use our enforcement tools, including those provided under FSMA, as appropriate.
- Optimize FDA laboratories. ORA and the various Centers will establish a multi-year strategic plan for ORA scientific laboratory work, including hiring and training analysts, purchasing and using equipment, and allocating resources and facilities. At the same time, ORA is committed to conducting an ongoing review of its labs to ensure that they are properly managed and operating as efficiently as possible.
- Create specialized investigators, compliance officers, and first-line managers. A bioresearch monitoring (BIMO) working group is developing a plan for a dedicated corps of ORA investigators to conduct BIMO inspections, and a dedicated cadre of tobacco investigators is being established.
Working together to implement these action plans will take time, commitment, and continued investment and we’ll need to monitor and evaluate our efforts. These plans will help us implement the new FSMA rules announced in September, as well as the Agency’s new medical product quality initiatives under the FDA Safety and Innovation Act and Drug Quality and Security Act.
FDA’s Program Alignment is a well-thought out approach that responds to the needs of a changing world. I look forward to the ways in which these action plans will ultimately enhance the FDA’s public health and regulatory mission.
Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., is Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
– See more at: http://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2014/10/fdas-program-alignment-addresses-new-regulatory-challenges/#sthash.EPs0qQZw.dpuf
