FDA Commissioner Outlines New Enforcement Plans
Readers of MassTortDefense know how FDA actions can instigate and affect potential mass tort litigation involving drugs and devices. Last week, in a presentation to the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI), new FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg revealed that the FDA will implement procedural reforms designed to allow the agency to act more quickly and aggressively on the enforcement of food, drug, and medical device regulations. The FDA commissioner told FDLI that the federal watchdog will be a leaner and meaner organization under her leadership.
In her remarks, the Commissioner noted that while impressed by the commitment to compliance that many companies have made – both in terms of their corporate culture and their investment in compliance systems -- her goal is for all companies to make and implement such a commitment in order to prevent harm to the public. A key part of the strategy to support private sector compliance is more effective enforcement against violations of the law. She suggested that such enforcement helps industry too – by maintaining a level playing field for safe products. Making sure that offenders are held legally accountable prevents companies from having to choose between doing the right thing and staying competitive.
An effective enforcement strategy depends on several key elements she said:
- The FDA must be vigilant. Through regular inspections and follow-up on signals indicating problems, the FDA must work to identify and resolve problems early. Companies must have a realistic expectation that if they are crossing the line, they will be caught, and that if they fail to act, FDA will.
- The FDA must be strategic, she continued. The agency must place greater emphasis on significant risks and violations, and use meaningful penalties to send a strong message to discourage future offenses.
- The FDA must be quick. The agency must be able to respond rapidly to egregious violations or violations that jeopardize public health.
More specifically, she said the pathways for enforcement action can be too long and arduous. To address this, the FDA will set post-inspection deadlines. When the FDA finds that a firm is significantly out of compliance, it will expect a prompt response to the findings, generally no more than fifteen working days before the FDA moves ahead with a warning letter or enforcement action.
Second, the FDA will take steps to speed the issuance of warning letters. There will be a new policy to limit warning letter review to significant legal issues.
Third, the FDA will work more closely with regulatory partners to develop effective risk control and enforcement strategies. In many food safety cases, for example, local, state, and international officials have more authority to take action quickly than the FDA.
Fourth, the FDA will prioritize enforcement follow-up. After a warning letter is issued or a major product recall occurs, FDA will make it a priority to follow up promptly with appropriate action, such as an inspection or investigation to assess whether or not a company has made required changes in its practices.
Fifth, she said, the FDA will no longer issue multiple warning letters to non-compliant firms before taking enforcement action. And, in the case of significant health concerns or egregious violations, FDA will consider immediate action – even before issuing a formal warning letter.
Finally, the FDA is developing a formal warning letter “close-out” process. If the FDA can determine, usually based on a re-inspection, that a firm has fully corrected the violations raised in a warning letter, it will provide to the firm a “close-out” letter, indicating that the issues in the warning letter have been successfully addressed. One can imagine how the obtaining or failure to obtain a close-out letter may be anissue in litigation.
