Showing posts with label Howard Sklamberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Howard Sklamberg. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The road ahead for ensuring access to quality drugs for all Americans… new laws under “FDASIA” will help pave the way Posted on June 18, 2013 by FDA Voice By: Howard Sklamberg

From FDA blog-
In January, I became director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s (CDER) Office of Compliance, giving me the responsibility – and great privilege — of playing a lead role in FDA’s work to help protect the American public from unsafe and ineffective drugs. It’s a big job, filled with many challenges. 
Fortunately, after three years of service with FDA, most recently as the agency’s deputy associate commissioner for regulatory affairs (our field operation), and 12 years before that as a prosecutor with the Justice Department, I feel prepared to help the agency meet these challenges head on. 

I’d like to take an opportunity to share my priorities, as well as my views and perspectives on the goals and challenges ahead for FDA, as we continue to work to ensure access to quality drugs in the United States. 
Tragically, last October’s outbreak of fungal meningitis from contaminated methylprednisolone injections that killed over 50 Americans and sickened hundreds more directed FDA’s attention to the immediate public health priority of evaluating the quality of sterile compounded drugs and preventing further incidents. Our efforts have included proposing a new legislative framework for federal oversight, inspecting high-risk compounding facilities that produce sterile drugs, and working more closely with our state partners. 
As important as our efforts are in the compounding arena, our compliance challenges extend to many other critical areas, many of which are related to the new and growing global marketplace for pharmaceutical products. 
Today, nearly 40 percent of the drugs Americans take are imported and nearly 80 percent of the active ingredients come from overseas sources. A growing number of clinical trials that test the safety and effectiveness of potential new drugs are also moving overseas, making FDA oversight more challenging. Counterfeit drugs are proliferating around the world and sometimes even entering the U.S.supply chain. The ever burgeoning worldwide use of the Internet continues to spawn avenues for illegal online sales of medicines of unknown safety and quality. Also, poor manufacturing practices that lead to facility shut-downs often contribute to shortages of important drugs. We must ensure that wherever drugs are made, wherever their ingredients are from, or wherever and however they are tested and sold, that they meet FDA’s strict standards of quality and that they remain in adequate supply. 
Despite these challenges, there’s good news. The Food and Drug Administration Innovation and Safety Act of 2012 (FDASIA) gave FDA powerful new tools to enhance our compliance and enforcement activities including stronger authorities and funding to support the inspection of foreign manufacturing facilities. For example, FDASIA facilitates our ability to partner with and work more effectively with foreign regulatory agencies. FDASIA also gave FDA more authorities to control the drug supply chain. 
However, laws on the books do not automatically translate into effective change without effective implementation and enforcement of these laws. So, in addition to continuing our critical work with Congress on appropriate and effective oversight of compounding that exceeds the bounds of traditional pharmacy compounding, my other key priority is to work to implement FDASIA’s provisions, keeping CDER focused globally and armed with the best set of tools possible to do the job. Although we have much more work to do, a vision of enhanced capabilities of ensuring quality drug products for the American public is well in sight. 
I have the distinct privilege and responsibility of being part of a fantastic team of dedicated FDA staff that’s really making a difference, and I look forward to continuing to serve the American public in working to ensure access to quality drugs. 
Howard Sklamberg is Director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Office of Compliance

Sunday, May 13, 2012

FDA's 2012 Enforcement Priorities


At the recent December 2011 Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) conference on Enforcement, Litigation and Compliance Conference in Washington, DC, Howard Sklamberg, Deputy Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs, ORA, FDA at U.S. Food and Drug Administration, gave a speech on ORA 2012 Enforcement Priorities.  The slides from that presentation can be viewed here.  Sklamberg's conclusion included these points:
  • Enforcing the laws and regulations is one of the Agency’s highest priorities.
  • Effective enforcement ensures that businesses 
    • remain vigilant about their corporate responsibility to comply with the laws enforced by FDA; 
    • firms invest in quality systems that prevent harm to the public; and
    • those who do comply with the law are not unfairly disadvantaged.
  • FDA needs to transform from a domestically-focused safety agency operating in a globalized world to a truly globally-focused agency that is fully prepared for a regulatory environment in which national borders are less relevant to product safety than they have been in the past.
  • FDA intends to build international coalitions of regulators who have the capability and technology to rapidly share public health information and protect those they serve.
  • Advantages for industry may include: fewer inspections, stream-lined regulation, level playing field between foreign and domestic producers, elimination of the competitive advantage of non-compliance.
  • This monumental effort will take a long-term investment in time and resources, but the pay off will be added safety and security for American consumers.