FDA’s Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) recently published a white paper proposal on the development of a rating system to measure a firm’s quality management maturity (QMM) as a way to mitigate drugs shortages and enhance the quality of finished drug products. These ratings would be publicly available. This is very aligned in thought to the recent NAS study recommendations in a paper commissioned by Congress.
This fits nicely within the recent draft guidance on metrics, and the two are definitely meant to fit together.
I am a big advocate of this work. I definitely want to see the particulars, but this is a long time coming and greatly needed. Frankly, the best way to make them happen is to require the QMM to be a factor in purchasing decisions for Medicaid/Medicare and the Veterans Hospitals (and more if possible).
The agency will be holding two workshops on quality management maturity, on May 24 and May 25. The first workshop will address CDER’s QMM program and the second will discuss quality ratings.
Investigations of a Dog 