Gifts For Industry: From Waived Inspections To Pre-Market Leeway, US FDA Woos Firms For Maturity Pilot

FDA wants to give away a basket of goodies to manufacturers that voluntarily play in an upcoming pilot program that will help the agency determine the manufacturing maturity of device-makers by using the CMMI maturity model appraisal process. Incentives to join the pilot include FDA delaying regularly scheduled facility audits, waiving preapproval inspections, allowing more leeway for 30-day notices and pre-market submissions, and easing up on the issuance of FDA warning letters. A major goal of the initiative is for the agency to have greater confidence in firms that demonstrate high-quality, gold-star quality systems so it can focus its limited resources on less mature, troublesome firms.